Hello, fellow pilgrims. This week, I visited my favorite labyrinth called Sholom Park Labyrinth Path. It is a large, park-sized labyrinth that is so immersive and full of life that it seamlessly transports the walker into a spiritually transformative experience. It is so enveloping that it is surprisingly easy to forget you are in a labyrinth at all. Some of you have heard me talk about this labyrinth before. It is that impactful—to me, anyway. I bring it up today because it is a pathway for discernment, much like the Camino I’ve written about over the past six weeks.
When we are on a path of discernment, we reflect upon our experiences, we discern our possibilities, and we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. Throughout, we may encounter areas of vibrance and life, areas of woundedness and healing, and areas of stagnation and change—each offering us opportunities for transition and growth.
This Sholom Labyrinth walks the discerner down winding paths of reflection and attentiveness as it twists and turns through a landscape metaphorically symbolizing the wounds, the challenges, and the healing in our lives—trees searching for light and hope; plants vying for space and resources, organisms approaching their end while others find opportunity for life; spiders weaving webs like nets gathering resources; birds whose voices many may hear, but few may understand; bridges carrying us over streambeds—some actively flowing and others parched and empty; and flowers, blooming everywhere–some so tiny that they could easily go unnoticed others unabashedly bold and bright. And all the while, signs direct the walker (the discerner) to consider these things in their hearts. Where do you feel unseen, parched, or wounded? Where do your waters run deep? Or dry? Where have you experienced an end or a beginning? Whose voices do you know well? Whose voices are foreign to you?
Labyrinths and caminos call us to reflect and discern—to reflect on our experiences, to discern our possibilities, and to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. As we prepare to engage in our own in situ Camino at St. James’, I ask you to consider those questions, as well. And as you do so, remember:
You are Beautiful. You are Beloved. You are called.
In faith,
Angela+