Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Dearest God,

Oh, the power of spiritual memory!  I was writing my meditation story for our church devotional book when I found myself back at the Carmelite Monastery.  It was Christmas Eve, 1997, one of the most beautiful, holy moments of my life!

Burdened with a diagnosis of breast cancer I joined my covenant group colleagues for our regular covenant group meeting.  Due to have radical surgery in two days we shared a devotion, prayer and spiritual reflections.  We sought you in the deepest levels of our faith when we heard singing.  Pausing to listen we realized the sisters had gathered outside our door.  Carrying bibles, a lighted candle, song sheets, and nativity characters they invited us to join them for their annual ritual of carrying the light into every room of the monastery.  Preparing each room for Christ to enter, we sang, listened to scripture and made a pilgrimage to the chapel where the Christ Child was laid in the manger.  There we worshipped the Christ to come.

Following mass the sisters circled round me and one by one they came forward, placed their loving hands on my shoulders and prayed for me.  In every way they met my own darkness with the light of their Christ.

Holy Father,
thank you
for the blessing
of spiritual memory.
Thank you
for faith
that envelopes,
embraces and enlivens.
Thank you
for hope
that comes
when the light
removes the darkness.

Love always, Andrea