Such wisdom is not likely to be discovered in a fortune cookie. But I did find this quote in my lunch bag. This past summer, The Martha Retreat Centre here in Lethbridge offered an outdoor Peace-at-Lunch-Programme on their beautiful grounds two days a week over the course of about eight weeks. As a fund-raiser for the Centre, people could buy a nutritious gourmet bag-lunch and enjoy it overlooking the coulees or take it home to eat. Each week, along with a different lunch menu, a new quote was included. The one above (my favourite) was written by Catherine of Siena, a Roman Catholic mystic, born in 1347 in Italy. It is my favourite, because I have experienced its truth.
Catherine of Siena’s words took me back to a time when I had said farewell to a dying person. We wouldn’t see each other again this side of heaven, I thought. Then an opportunity presented itself for one more visit before I needed to be at the airport. “But I’ve already said my goodbyes,” I inwardly protested, while acknowledging these were code-words for: “I’m too sad to do this again; I want to protect my heart.”
I explained my dilemma to a Spiritual Director who listened deeply and prayed with me. I decided to re-visit the dying individual where, for the entire time, it felt like I was totally immersed in water. All was calmness – around me, in me, and through me. “So, this is what ‘the peace that passes understanding’ feels like,” I marvelled.
I don’t know if I will ever again have the same or even a similar physical and emotional peace as I did in that hospital room years ago. It’s not mine to replicate, however, because it was a gift from God.
The exchange between the Spiritual Director and myself – and God’s presence in it – freed a pathway for my heart to become porously vulnerable – and astoundingly blessed.
Ruth Preston Schilk