Secret Garden

Silence, Secret Easter Garden

 “What will your secret garden look like? The point is to begin to slow down your life and focus your attention. Listen, and in the quiet, you will hear the direction of your heart. The garden of silence is always there for us. Patiently waiting.” —Anne D. LeClaire in Listening Below the Noise: The Transformative Power of Silence (Harper Perennial, 2009).

Langley in the Secret Garden at the former College of Preachers at National Cathedral

One of my favorite young adult novels is The Secret Garden, by the American-English author Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett, who also wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess. The Secret Garden tells of an unloved ten-year-old English girl sent to live with her grieving uncle in his remote country home on the bleak moors of Yorkshire after her parents die. Her unhappiness, aloneness, and the heartache and isolation of those around her heal when she begins caring for and restoring a secret garden on the manor house grounds.

I watched the 1993 British film starring Maggie Smith with my daughter and granddaughters and later saw the play with a granddaughter. This story resonates with the child within us, the creative part of us—the side we so quickly abandon for more important things, which is a significant connection to the divine within us.

The Secret Garden also tells how nature’s sounds, smells, and sights can silence and calm the grownup “wounded committee” in our heads—and heal and transform our inner child. We all should have a secret garden, a place where we can gently reconnect with the God within ourselves and the divine in each other. It represents a safe place where the presence of the Spirit is more easily felt, as described in Psalm 32:7: “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.”

Ann Gornatti’s Secret Garden

Talking about our secret garden, our hiding place—often a place of silence—can be an opening to the divine in spiritual direction.

So many friends planted new gardens during the past pandemic. Nurseries and garden centers were thriving. So, as we continue to plant and watch the growing, let us also contemplate our own secret garden, where a very holy part of us lives and grows.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Ascension Day

Ascension Day

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”—Matthew 28:16-20.

Ascension Window St. Thomas Menasha

Today, we celebrate the little-known Feast Day of the Ascension of Jesus to Heaven, 40 days after Easter. Barbara Crafton1 describes this as the feast of the “simultaneous presence and absence of Christ.”

Charles Chatham,2 a former priest at St. Mark’s, reminds us that the New Testament scholar Raymond Brown coined this helpful phrase about the Ascension: “the presence of the absent Jesus.”

There is an absence of the physical body of Christ, but in some mysterious way, he is still with us, inside of us, beside us, and inside our neighbors as well.

Barbara Brown Taylor3 often writes about our wanting to feel the presence of Jesus. We think he is absent. She tells us we should look around us instead of looking up to heaven. Look in our neighbors. Look inside of ourselves. Jesus is still here. Remember how God cared for us in the past. God has never abandoned us.

We know that the Ascension means Jesus took part of the world’s humanity to be forever part of God, the Holy. But Taylor describes the Ascension as if Jesus not only ascended but exploded, with the holiness once concentrated in him alone flying everywhere, far and wide, with the seeds of heaven now sown in all the fields of the earth at that time and in the future. The body of Christ is not somewhere beyond our telescopes but here, beside, and inside of us.

We weekly celebrate this presence in the Eucharist. Christ’s presence is still with us, “always to the end of the age,” Mathew tells us. Jesus also promises that soon, in ten days, we will celebrate the promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit within each of us at the Feast Day of Pentecost.

Both feast days are a mystery.

Kate Alexander4 at Christ Church gives us a prayer attributed to the 16th-century Spanish mystic Carmelite nun Teresa of Avila, which may help explain what so many are trying to tell us:

“God of love, help us to remember

That Christ has no body now on earth but ours,

No hands but ours, no feet but ours.

Ours are the eyes to see the needs of the world.

Ours are the hands with which to bless everyone now.

Ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good,

Ours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world. Amen.”

1Barbara Crafton, “Ascension,” Almost Daily Email from Geranium Farm, 2004.

2 Charles Chatham, “Presence of the Absent Jesus,” in Thinking Faith #172, 2012.

3Barbara Brown Taylor, “Looking Up to Heaven,” Gospel Medicine, pp. 72-78.

4 The Rev. Kate Alexander, “Feast of the Ascension, Year B,” Christ Church, Little Rock, May 21, 2009.

Joanna Seibert https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Bless you for supporting the ministry of our church and conference center, Camp Mitchell, on top of Petit Jean Mountain, by buying this book in the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter. If you like this book, could you briefly write a recommendation on its page on Amazon? More thank-yous than I can say!!!

Celtic Spirituality and Nature

Celtic Spirituality and Nature.

"There is no creature on the earth

There is no life in the sea

But proclaims your goodness.

There is no bird on the wing

There is no star in the sky

There is nothing beneath the sun

But is full of your blessing.

Lighten my understanding

Of your presence all around, O Christ

Kindle my will

      to be caring for Creation."—Phillip Newell, "Wednesday Morning" in Celtic Prayers from Iona: The Heart of Celtic Spirituality (Paulist Press, 1997).

sunset Arkansas River Trail. Hoke

The late Native American producer and musician Jim Wilson recorded the chirping sounds of crickets at regular and slowed-down speeds, which is said to match "the average lifespan of humans." In the slowed-down version, the crickets seem to sing Alleluias. (https://youtu.be/jk5gibBg-4g)  

It is an impressive sound of praise from nature. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, no one else has reproduced the sound so that it might be manipulated in some way. Nevertheless, I often listen to the crickets' recording, hearing an angelic chorus outside in the night sky.

There is no doubt that birds, especially in the early morning, seem to sing a new oratorio to Creation each day as the sun comes up.

The stars at night are like fireworks from millions of miles away, reminding us of a spectacle beyond our comprehension.

The waves in the ocean are like a percussion instrument that keeps us aware of Creation's constant, steady heartbeat—sometimes crashing like cymbals, occasionally tinkling softly like the ring of a triangle.

 I also hear from so many pet owners that they have experienced unconditional love for the first time from their pets, especially from dogs.

The love and praise of God are all around us, especially in nature. Listen for it

The pandemic was a time for listening and looking, while the noise and lights outside of nature were considerably less. They are returning. Consider this a respite for our lives, even for brief periods. It has been a gift of significant cost, so treasure each moment, each second, and remember those who gave and are still giving up their lives.

Remember that whatever we do to stay healthy and safe, hearing the crickets and watching the Milky Way can always calm our bodies and bring wellness.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/