This past Monday, during a break in my clinical schedule at the Cathedral Counseling Center, and in need of some restorative time, I walked outside the front door of the Lanier House and entered the outdoor labyrinth. I walk past it every morning when I arrive at the counseling center, and every evening as I leave for my car and the return trip to Jasper. But I don’t often take the time to walk the labyrinth, an ancient Celtic spiritual practice.
Walking the labyrinth at the Cathedral, similar to the one at Holy Family and those around the world, is a contemplative spiritual discipline. It involves prayerfully walking a marked path based on the ancient practice of pilgrimage. On a pilgrimage, a pilgrim intentionally leaves their ordinary world, journeying away from the distractions and busyness of life. Labyrinths can be used for meditation, prayer, and contemplation, or as a physical expression of a person’s spiritual journey, and are often used as a way to quiet the mind and calm anxiety. They can be used to worship and praise God, or to intercede for others. Walking the labyrinth can help persons enhance their creativity, and integrate body, mind, and spirit toward “wholeness” (or “integritas.”)
The labyrinth is one among many spiritual disciplines available to us on our journey and can be included in a Rule of Life. For many years I served as psychological health faculty for Episcopal CREDO, a wellness program for clergy designed to provide a restorative and healing experience away from the quotidian day to day life of a priest or deacon. Among the components of this week-long program is the creation of a Rule of Life, based on the Benedictine spiritual practice by the same name.
As Richard Rohr reminds us, “one of the streams of wisdom comes from deep in the Christian tradition—the Wisdom of Benedictine Monasticism. Saint Benedict, in the fifth century, drew from an already well-established stream of transformational wisdom that came out of the deserts of Egypt and Syria via a first generation of people who wanted to practice what it means to put on the mind of Christ. Saint Benedict became heir to this and shaped it into a massive, stable container, which has been the foundation of Christian monasticism and monastic transformational practice in the West for 1,500 years. Its brilliant and stable legacy of “Ora et Labora”: “Prayer and Work,” offers a fundamental rhythm for the balancing and ordering of human life.
Joan Chittister, a vowed religious sister of the Order of Saint Benedict, explains how the Rule of Benedict provides an opportunity for transformation for everyone who chooses to follow its wisdom:
All in all, the Rule of Benedict is designed for ordinary people who live ordinary lives. It was not written for priests or mystics or hermits or ascetics; it was written by a layman for laymen. It was written to provide a model of spiritual development for the average person who intends to live life beyond the superficial or the uncaring. [1] ..
Benedict was quite precise about it all. Time was to be spent in prayer, in sacred reading, in work, and in community participation. In other words, it was to be spent on listening to the Word, on study, on making life better for others, and on community building. It was public as well as private; it was private as well as public. It was balanced. No one thing consumed the monastic’s life. No one thing got exaggerated out of all proportion to the other dimensions of life. No one thing absorbed the human spirit to the exclusion of every other. Life was made up of many facets and only together did they form a whole. Physical labor and mental prayer and social life and study and community concerns were all pieces of the puzzle of life. Life flowed through time, with time as its guardian. [2] At the end of every CREDO week, the participants shared their Rule of Life based on their reflections during the conference and for me, this was among the most moving and important aspects of the CREDO experience.
Last week at our pastoral care committee meeting, we wondered together about possible opportunities for the ongoing development and growth of this vital area of our parish community, one with a rich history of caring for souls in a variety of ways. Among the possibilities before us is a program already established across the denomination, including in our own Diocese, the Community of Hope, a lay pastoral care based on Benedictine Spiritual traditions. This is increasingly important in a season of the Episcopal Church with increasing emphasis on “Lay led, clergy supported” parishes.
Here is more information about the Community of Hope, and the first weekend in October is the COHI conference at Kanuga. I’ll be gathering more information about how we might connect with this group as we move forward! Our Stewardship campaign indeed encourages each of us to share our many, many gifts and graces in a variety of ways. Perhaps this is one of yours! https://www.cohi.org/2024-annual-conference
I’ll catch you later on down the trail, and I hope to see you in church!
Bill+
References:
[1] Joan D. Chittister, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today (HarperSanFrancisco: 1991), 4. [2] Chittister, 74–75. Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, An Introductory Wisdom School: Course Transcript and Companion Guide (Wisdom Way of Knowing: 2017), 4. Learn about and register for Cynthia’s online Introductory Wisdom School.