A few months ago I called Rev. Battle Beasley rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to ask if our community could meet there one night. Over the last month our group has been reading and exploring the practices of the book The Sacred Way. One of the chapters is the spiritual practice of walking a labyrinth. St. Mark’s has an outdoor labyrinth and I thought instead of just talking about walking a labyrinth we should go walk a labyrinth. Wednesday night 7 of us did just that. Before we walked Battle took some time to explain the history & meaning of labyrinths. The design of the labyrinth at St. Mark’s is called Chartres.
Chartres Cathedral labyrinth
The name comes from the famous Chartres Cathedral labyrinth in France…can anyone sayroad trip?
Moving on…Battle gave us paper and pencils to jote down some questions or thoughts we had before entering the labyrinth and after walking it we should return to those thoughts to see if there was some clarity. I have walked a labyrinth before while I was in seminary but this for whatever reason had a different vibe to it. This time I walked knowing that this was not a waste of time but rather a chance to deepen my relationship with God. A chance to hear God and for me to listen. As I began walking I noticed one phrase repeating in my mind, inward reflection outward focus. Over and over again this repeated in my head. As I reached the center I stood inside one of the petals looking outside the labyrinth. I noticed the blue sky, the trees, the green grass not really focusing on anything just looking. After a couple of days to ponder these two things I believe there is a connection. I know that reflection leads to action but I always seem to get sidetracked. I notice a lot of things and maybe that is the problem for me when it comes to action. What action should I focus on? There is a lot of things that have my attention but what truly has my focus? I believe God is stirring me to action. Not to multiple things but something singular/something I will focus on exclusively. God only knows what that is…for now.
Peace,
Nate
Peace,