Holy Spaces, Holy Places

I try to live my life always connected to the holy. A lot of the time, life gets in the way of that. I feel myself fragmented by the urgency of something else that must be done and I tell myself I'll get around to this later. But from time to time - and right now is one of those times - I find myself filled with an intense yearning to be deeply connected to and immersed in, my connection to God.

By being immersed in the holy, I don't mean a false piety or a "holier-than-thou" attitude. Rather it becomes my heart's desire to spend more time open to where the Spirit is in my life, listening to and sharing with Jesus and simply be present to and in awe of what God has done for me and mine.

Like all of you, I live a busy life full of commitments to family and friends and work and community. Often times, I am too busy to do much about this yearning for connection when it floods me. But this time around, I am really trying to pay attention to what I might do to respond to this sense of urgency and desire to spend time with God.

Tom and I share a rich and deep spiritual life together. We often pray together, as well as for one another, and I was sharing this sense and hunger with him last night. After we talked and prayed for a while, we decided we would find a corner and make an altar - a place that would center our prayer, remind us daily of our need to be connected to God and draw us closer to God and each other and our family.

I have a hope chest that holds my boys first pairs of shoes, their baby blankets and other treasures of their lives that we thought would be a good altar. On it we have placed things that speak to us of the sacred: a rock a Christian wise woman brought me back from Iona, an insense burner given to Tom by his mentor in faith, the small New Testament that belonged to the grandmother who taught me how to share God's story with children and gifted me with my vocation, the dried petals of the first roses Tom gave me, a clay mold of Scott's (Tom's son) handprint, the icon of Mary of Magdalene my spiritual director gave me, the small, palm-sized stuffed fish that Alex handed me as I went out the door in labor with his brother.

As I looked at these small treasures after we had placed them there, I realized that each item was an "outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual graces" (to paraphrase the Catechism on the Sacraments) - signs of the sacramental connections we have to each other, to our children and others who love us. As Tom and I continued to reflect, we realized that what is missing from our altar is a cross for the center- because each of these sacred and holy connections made visible on our altar is grounded in a relationship with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus is the thread that ties everything together. So this weekend, we are going to look for a cross that will center and anchor this holy place we have made for holy space in our lives.

I wonder what you would put on your altar? Would you share that with me and the other readers of this blog.

Faithfully,
Elizabeth