Dear Friends,
 
Happy May! This month, I had the great delight of facilitating a Day of Prayer for the School of Applied Theology, attended by people from around the world, including Ireland, Mexico, Africa, the Philippines, and the U.S.
 
We joined together and formed a sacred circle to reflect upon a universal theme: change.
 
We worked with Parker Palmer’s notion of Way Closing and Way Opening. In his book, Let Your Life Speak, Parker asserts that our inner teacher reveals our true self to us—the essence of who we are and what we’re meant to do—through both endings (way closing) and opportunities (way opening).
 
Throughout the day, we also engaged in Visio Divina—a form of sacred seeing that uses images to inspire insight and prayer. Our theme was doors and doorways. As people prayed using the images, they not only noticed the details of the doors, but meditated on the thoughts, impressions, and questions that the images stirred within them.
 
One door had steps leading outward—is this an invitation? Another door was framed with a trellis of rose bushes—is something new blooming? Another door was enclosed in a shadow—is something asking to be seen?
 
When we took the time to gaze with an open heart and an open mind upon what these closed doors represented, it became clear that the way closing also contained and held within it the way opening. For they are inseparable, each living within and reflected by the other.  Way closing can have the guiding effect of way opening, if we allow it.
 
After we reflected upon way closing, we moved into way opening. We began by reading Thomas Merton on identity, in New Seeds of Contemplation, and his notion that we are to work together with God, with Spirit, in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny. He writes that “we are called to participate in creating the truth of our identity.”
 
For way opening, people gazed upon images of winding rivers, glaciers, mountain ranges, a jungle path, and a dancing woman. These images inspired words such as: faith, mystery, trust, surprise, and strength. We discovered that to live into our transitions, into co-creating our lives with the Divine, we had to remember that way closing and way opening shared a home together.

The question at the heart of this is: What is the new life that wants to grow in me?
 
 I invite you to take a moment to reflect upon this in your life right now:

• Let yourself sit quietly for a few moments. Gather yourself by connecting with the in- and out-flow of your breath. Do not try to change or control the breath.
• Connect with a way closing in your life, a relationship, job, place, or even something subtle like a perception or way of thinking.
• Meet your feelings, and all that is stirring within you. Be kind. Be gentle. Be loving with yourself.
• Do you have a sense of how God wants to meet you, and be with you, in this situation?
• Notice if you recognize the guidance being offered to you; notice the invitation.
• In a gesture of surrender and receptivity, gently say to yourself, Yes—I will stay in the Flow of Life, in the dynamic Flow of the Spirit.
• Can you sense the way opening? 

It feels to me that May is a month of way closing and way opening for many of us—the school year is ending, people are moving, relationships are changing, and summer is approaching. It’s a time to renew our sense of hope, and to both feel our sorrow and turn towards joy.
 
To bring you compassion and comfort during a time of change in your life, I invite you to participate in my current online retreat presented through Mercy Center: Living Comfort, Living Joy. May we continue to live in faith, hope, and love.
 
Warmly,
Colette