Anchored in God
Lynne Elwinger, O.C.D.
Can it be autumn again already? Signs are showing up all over our land, and sounding also in our hearts as they resonate with the season. Having arrived in what seems to have been record time this year, fall has brought, as always, its own special messages. It is a time for letting go and also a time for holding on.
The art of letting go gracefully, of detachment freely allowed in response to an inner call, is always emphasized for me in this season. This call that we hear is one also heard by the trees, flowers, garden plants, migrating birds, and all of nature each year. Plant growth has come full circle and has shared fruit for our nourishment and seeds for another year’s new crop. Our roads are filled with tractors hauling hoppers of grain. The birds are giving up the security of their warm season nests to migrate once again to their winter homes. Hopefully, a similar process of call and response is taking place in our hearts and lives. Busy with the demands of our everyday living, we sometimes fail to notice.
The fall season invites us to stop a little while and reflect on the year that has passed, taking note of what has grown to fruition, what has fed us, and what seeds we carry into the year ahead. In the realm of nature, seasonal letting go is an automatic reaction to the cooler and shorter days. For people, this always involves a choice to be made. We have to choose to loosen our grasp on what has had its day and should be allowed to go. For me, that isn’t always as easy as it seems to be for the trees which so effortlessly let their leaves detach and drift to the ground below. However, doing so is a very important aspect of maintaining a healthy spiritual life.
Now, with our land freshly carpeted with mosaics of red, yellow, orange and green leaves, and our autumn saints, Ss. Teresa and Therese, once again celebrated, we are having a time of retreat, a time for reflection. Each of our saints, in her own life, has modeled for us lessons of letting go in response to God’s invitation to live the Gospels in our own lives today. The forms that this detachment takes are as individual and unique as each person is. Our suffering world is always helped by whatever effort we make to become more available as witnesses to God’s continuing love for us in our own time.
Resting In God
When we encounter the chaos, confusion, bewilderment, economic and natural disasters, and instability of these turbulent times, a second message of our saints, and of this special season, comes to the fore. This is the message of holding on to the essentials, of finding anchor and safe harbor as we navigate the wild currents of the seas of uncertainty. When winds of fear and anxiety blow around us, we are challenged to strengthen our hold on God’s presence within us and within our faith communities. Our saints knew how to rest in God, resisting being overwhelmed by that sense of powerlessness that can be brought on by dealing with forces so much larger than we are. St. Teresa’s well known Bookmark reminds us to let nothing trouble us, and that, while all things are passing, God is always with us and that is enough.
The miners trapped for so long in Chile were an inspiration to us all in their ability to choose hope over despair as they waited and prayed for rescue. As they prayed (and we with them) and worked and made the best of a difficult situation, they unknowingly gave us all a good example of a community of faith, drawing its strength from an inner anchoring in the divine presence. Many of them, as they came out of the rescue capsule, spontaneously thanked God for their lives, some on their knees on ground they weren’t sure they would ever see again. They had indeed anchored themselves on the rock of God’s presence with them throughout their ordeal.
God Has Made A Home
The leaf-bare trees of autumn instinctively move their nourishing inner sap flow to the roots which hold them strong throughout the winter storms. In every season, we are wise to follow their example of connecting with that safe harbor within our souls where God has made a home and is always present. Like the trees preparing for winter, the miners in an extreme situation, and our saints in all seasons, we too can anchor and take shelter in that Love that is greater than anything that comes our way. This doesn’t mean that everything will always be wonderful or turn out just the way we want it. But it does mean that the One who walks with us every step of the way will give us whatever help we need to take the next step and the next and all the ones after that. Jesus has promised that he will be with us until the end of the world and the Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts remains there to guide, comfort and heal us. We travel in good company as we journey onward, and we give thanks!
Sr. Lynne Thérèse Elwinger of the Resurrection O.C.D.