Meeting the Sacred

Tuesday, March 7

(Late Entry Due to Travel)

Perhaps I am blessed this morning because I am without a connection to the Internet as I prepare a reflection for both of us. What can I do? I can return to a book that I am reading: Seeking the Sacred, the inspiring work of Stephanie Dowrick. As I join with you in our Lenten journey, isn't our prayer time nothing less than an attempt to know the sacred?The author notes well that such a venture cannot be by another person for me. Each of us must set aside the time to allow ourselves such a discovery. No one can find the sacred for someone else. I can look at nature in its splendor. I can read of a poet's dealing with the muses. I can read of one person's encounter with God. All of these moments can be inspiring for me. It is only me alone who can find the sacred for myself. God is for me what He wants for me alone. It cannot be otherwise: He made me the unique individual that I am.During this season of Lent, as I seek to better understand Jesus as "friend," I am drawn closer to sacred first and foremost by nurturing reverence. Reverence is the powerful force that opens for me the ability to place myself in the presence of my God in all His wonder. It is the search for the sacred that I discover who I am and, by the way, who you are and who we are. It is his insight of Dowrick that affirms the power of reverence to bring us to the sacred.So, let us use these days of finding Jesus as friend to help us better understand ourselves and those others who share so much of our lives. In doing this surely we nurture reverence that leads us to the sacred.