Streams of Mercy
This morning I reached for an old friend from the bookshelf – Seasons of the Heart. Catholic Sister Macrina Wiederkehr speaks of our journeys of life and faith in terms of “seasons of the heart.” I read this special book with a group of friends in my first church in Virginia, and need to be reminded of the journey we made together from time to time.
All of us journey through the seasons of the year – Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Many of us are aware of a journey through the seasons of the liturgical or church year – Advent, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and lots of days of Ordinary Time . We also journey through seasons of the heart – wonder and hope, suffering and love, healing and faith – and we need to grow in our awareness of this heart journey.
“The seasons of my heart change like the seasons of the field,” she writes. “There are seasons of wonder and hope, seasons of suffering and love, seasons of healing. There are seasons of dying and rising, seasons of faith.” She challenges us to watch for the change of seasons as we journey through life, and to notice how one season leads to another, and how we grow and change through life experiences.
Looking back over my life I can see that I have journeyed through those seasons, not once, but again and again; they are the seasons of my spiritual journey. While I have favorite seasons of the heart, just as I have favorite seasons of the year, I’ve learned to appreciate the gifts to be found in every season.
Sister Macrina writes, “My feet have always taken me to places where my heart has whispered I should go. My heart has been a wonderful teacher…Watch for the change of seasons as you walk, and notice how bits of other seasons linger in every walk.”
In I Samuel 16, we’re reminded that “God looks on the heart.” God is with us in the changing seasons of our hearts, and our lives, ever at work planting and plucking up, gathering and casting away, building up and tearing down … and making all things new. (Ecclesiastes 3)
In “A Morning Prayer”, Sister Macrina asks this of the Lord:
Shine on us, in us,
and through us,
just as your sun shines in the sky.
Give us enough of your light
that we may see the new
greening power
within us.
Give us
enough lightning and storms
to shake up our soil,
enough wind
to keep us spirited,
enough death to bring us life,
and enough goodness
to help us remember who we are.
Giving thanks for times of remembering important teachings on my journey of life and faith, for those who made that season of the journey with me, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.
Elizabeth