Listen to “The Broken Body of Christ”
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. ~Oswald Chambers
Oh so many years ago when I was being called by God to grow deeper in my spirituality, I got a little devotional book called "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. Today I have a hard time with the language, but it was a catalyst for change in my spiritual life at the time, and Chamber’s wisdom is just as inspiring. The image of BEING broken bread and poured out wine captivates me and calls me to look outward, beyond myself, every single time.
An authentic contemplatively inward journey always leads back outward, into the world, to offer mercy and healing in the way we are each called to do. It can be a very uncomfortable place to be but it can also bring gifts we never knew we needed. From 1999 to 2020, I was actively engaged in restorative justice ministries, working with women affected by incarceration, either their own or the incarceration of loved ones. In all those years, I promise you I received much more than I ever received.
In March 2020, when the word pandemic suddenly became so very real for all of us, the "Creative Space" program I had started three years earlier, for girls incarcerated at a local juvenile detention center, was shut down immediately. All of the girls were moved to another facility, and I would never see them again. Although I would not violate their trust by opening them, I am still in possession of their beautiful creative journals, tucked safely in a storage box that I was required to take home and bring back every week.
The pandemic made reaching out into the world, BEING broken bread and poured out wine in prison, a fading reality, for me. A different kind of reality struck when my husband lost his job. I subsequently retired early from appointed ministry in order to reorient my life. I now work mostly from home and include him in my life in lovely ways that had never been possible before.
"Reorientation" can be both a gift and a challenge. Walter Brueggemann, in his book "Spirituality of the Psalms," talks about reorientation as a gift from God during which we find a sense of renewal and transformation after a season of disorientation. Of course, life unfolds and orientation wraps us in gentle tenderness for a moment or for ages. BUT, at some point, that orientation will give way, and we will stumble across a threshold, once again, into disorientation. Even if that disorientation is communal, such as the current dismantling of our democracy, each of us must find a way through to the other side of the inner chaos, no matter how long. We are not alone as we long for a new reorientation!
So, what does all this have to do with BEING broken bread and poured out wine?
I don't know. Yet. Right now, all I know is that when I heard The Many singing "The Broken Body of Christ" I felt something stirring deep within. So, I know the “call" is forming once again.
This call is far deeper than putting together a calendar of events, which of course I’ve done and we will surely gather together because where would we be without each other, listening and loving, hoping and healing, together.
This call is more like a journey ever more deeply inward. Today, I am still circling the outer edges of the labyrinth of life, round and round, putting one foot in front of the other, waiting patiently to step on the winding pathway once again, for …
Always we begin again. ~St Benedict of Nursia
I'm wondering ... where are you on the labyrinth path of life these days?
Until next time,
may your unfolding path
be gentle and inviting... Cindy
An Invitation to Pray: It is time to let go. I am planning a ceremonial burning of the creative space journals in just a few days while I am on silent retreat in the woods. I think there will be tears. May they bring cleansing and clarity, healing and hope, love and light. Please pray with me for the girls whose journals contain such mysterious musings, and for me as I say good-bye.