Mystic Musings: Lent 3/29

“All has been consecrated. The creatures of the forest know this, the earth does, the seas do, the clouds know as does the heart full of love.

Strange a priest would rob us of this knowledge and then empower himself with the ability to make holy what already was.”

St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th century Catholic mystic and “Doctor of the Church”

Photo by Andrej Machart @andrejmachart

I have often said that the true vocation of a minister is to work themselves out of a job. There is often a dependency on a pastor to lead prayers, provide pastoral care, bring people together, model the life of faith, and provide a hopeful word. Some pastors like it that way, but keeping people dependent on you also keeps people from developing their full spiritual lives and gifts. It keeps people from recognizing the “image of God” already manifest in all of us, long before religious leaders ever took on the mantle of authority and teaching.

All of life is consecrated. Every person is already perfect in God’s eyes. The divine is already all around us and in us. There is nothing that isn’t already sacred.

Good religious leaders remind people of that then get out of the way!

Sit quietly. Breathe deeply. Repeat slowly for ten minutes allowing for two breaths between each reading of the Navajo Pollen Path blessing:

“Beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me. I am on the pollen path.”