“. . . the principal apostolic fruitfulness of our prayer is the unseen work of love in the secret places of the human spirit.”

                                                                     CCA Charter of Life

On this page we want to share with you some of the many ways in which the spirit of prayer becomes manifest in the everydayness of our lives.  Profound, humorous, sublime, earthy, matter of fact . . . God’s Spirit is one of endless and amazing variety!

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Pat, whose reflection follows, recently entered our Carmelite community as a candidate.

Here on a quite northern line of latitude, spring comes a bit later than in the bay area to which I have been accustomed.  But its delay has been an exquisite unfolding of nature and today was exceptional in its beauty.  My first opportunity to have a hermit day since arrival, I sent out a gentle invitation to its quiet solitude.  With ample sunlight and open space, I headed for the nature reserve that runs parallel to our monastery.

Walking amidst nature’s inhibition is a wonderful spiritual practice for one in transition.  It holds out to us something of a truth that might be readily grasped.  Trails in this particular sanctuary might lead to such a discovery as the hiker is led amidst a random array of wildflowers and fresh water streams.  Simple wooden bridges, hinting of the Zen-like garden, are built close to the quiet waters.  Standing on such a bridge one is privy to the actions of hundreds of tiny fish that scatter with the movements of your shadow, only to gather and realign themselves once again in a fluttering of sunlit circles.  A little side-stepping from the bridge and the game can go on as long as the sun shines!

Carved into the wood of one such bridge are these words of Rachel Carson: “some of nature’s most exquisite handiwork is on a miniature scale.”  Ever changing, ever creating, nature sends out gentle reminders that even the chaotic times of transition may be a simple energy in the great scheme of things.  Scattered in the shadow, we too realign in the light.  Each time we meet the demands of change we look into the confusion for the subtleties, signals, movements and resonances of our experience.  In that brief moment of chaos we begin to see that we are people of night and day, shadow and sun.  We look for what will give shape to our lives and what will finally realign us with what we have come to know as wholeness.  Moving into that new place we see further that confusion might beget clarity and our dissolution, integration.

Returning to the monastery, I could not help but think of the seeming duplicity within our transitions and how God might be present in such duplicity.  I thought of the psalmist who said that to God night is as day.  Crossing bridges is a momentary thing and words might fail us a bit.  Our rituals might suffice as we step to the right and to the left then scurry at the edge of shadows.  But to know that we will gather once again in those circles of light is to know that all is well.