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Opening Hymn: Dwelling Place
I fall on my knees to the Father of Jesus, The Lord who has shown us the glory of God. May He in His love give us strength for our living, the strength of His Spirit, the glory of God. May Christ find a dwelling place of faith in our hearts. May our lives be rooted in love, rooted in love.
Scripture: (Reader) John 15: 9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Dwell in my love. If you keep my commandments you will dwell in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and dwell in his love. I have told you this, so that my own joy may be in you, and your joy be complete.”
(Pause)
Reflection: (Leader)
What does it mean to dwell? Perhaps it means:
- to let things remain as they are for a time, to let be, to let go;
- to give ourselves permission to BE;
- to stop and let ourselves be surrounded by the joy of rest, of contentment, of doing nothing; of 'being with';
- to go aside and rest awhile, in order to become more complete.
Dwelling - is at the heart of our spirituality. We are called 'to dwell in Him'.
(Pause)
Where do we dwell? (Leader)
Scripture is the story of a people which begins in a garden, ends in a city, and throughout, gives accounts of human beings, wandering through the desert in search of a home. Sometimes, these are real places. But often, they are symbols that name the “dwelling places' of our inner lives - the 'places' where we know, dwell in, the love of Jesus. For example:
Namibia, Lolín Menéndez rscj
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Canada, Shelley Lawrence rscj
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Egypt, Cecilia van Zon rscj
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Dominican Republic, Muriel Cameron rscj
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1st Reader: The Desert: the place where we dwell in sorrow, emptiness, pain, endings;
2nd Reader: The Garden: the place of life-giving joy, from youth to maturity, from planting time to harvesting;
3rd Reader: The City: the place where we dwell in a concrete world - in a culture, in a society in which our human work can make a difference; the place where we give away the fruit of our contemplation through the works of mercy;
4th Reader: The Home: The place where we dwell in dailiness, in care, in human love and community; with all the rituals of sharing meals, affirming, teaching, witnessing; the place of nourishing, of planting and tending gardens;
- a being THERE, and a being WITH.
- the place where loneliness can be relieved through community, where masks are put aside and we can be 'who we are'.
Silent Reflection:
Think of a place that was a 'dwelling place' for you in recent weeks (A real place, or symbolic place, like 'desert', etc.)
Who was God for you in that 'place'?
Were you alone, with other people....?
Sharing
Leader: No matter where we are, we can 'dwell'. We can be 'at home'. Etty Hillesum, who died at Auschwitz in 1943, wrote in her diary what she learned in the last two years of her life:
“We ARE at home. Under the sky. In every place on earth, if we only carry everything within us…. We must be our own country.”
When we discover that, the capacity for 'dwelling', wherever we are, becomes ours.
Closing Hymn: “God” (From: The God of Life, by J. M. Talbot)
God to enfold me; God to surround me;
God in my thinking; God in my words;
God in my sleeping, and in my waking;
God in my watching, God in my home.
God in my life; God in my lips;
God in my heart and my soul;
In my sufficing, and in my slumber,
In my eternal and living soul.....
In my sufficing, and in my slumber,
In my eternal and living soul.
Maureen Currie rscj
Province of Canada
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