In his Synodal talks of 2023 Dominican Friar Timothy Radcliff spoke about being in Burundi during the civil war. He toured the country with two Dominican friars, one a Hutu the other a Tutsi. He goes on to state, “At night the three of us celebrated the Eucharist together. One Englishman and two Africans, a Hutu and a Tutsi: a new sense of we. We received it in the Eucharist before we grasped it in our minds and hearts.” It’s one thing to have a momentary awareness of such depth of reality and another to live out of it. No one of us has a crystal ball but I have a very strong intuition that the coming weeks will offer us this very challenge.

Surely contemplative practice will be a great resource for us as we lean into the uncertainty of the coming weeks. “Intention,” we are told is the hallmark of contemplative practice, centering prayer in particular. At its heart is not our own cleverness, intelligence, or subtlety of mind, but rather complete openness to the Divine as manifested in our experience. This openness provides a matrix which holds all “effort” in contemplative practice. 

Perhaps this more than anything will offer us, “the Peace that Passes Understanding,” in the weeks ahead. Spend a moment or two listening to the following and let us pray for peace in our hearts, in our country and in our blessed but broken world. May this prayer affect in all of us both near and far a new sense of “We”.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVdAjWJ_pMA

Blessings to each and all,
Margaret and Nancy