There is a quiet light
“There is a quiet light that shines in every heart” — John O’Donohue
Recently, I sat with a woman in spiritual direction as she tried to share the deep darkness she had experienced. Her words fell like a torrential rain as she bewailed the many layers of her trauma. It wasn’t a session of blame, but rather the soul’s release of pain, agony, isolation, confusion and overwhelm. She wasn’t asking a series of questions ‘why? or ‘why me?’. It was not a struggle to intellectually understand the darkness but rather a flood of emotions she experienced in the darkness.
To hold a soul in such grief and pain, such radical vulnerability is, for me, an experience of touching the heart of God. What am amazing gift it is to provide a safe place where God can welcome each person home! What a humbling experience to watch the gentle, compassion of God soothe someone so lost in darkness and pain.
I watched God’s transformation at work in this person and through her I became aware of a process of healing which each one of us experiences. Like the biblical story of the ‘prodigal son’ we too become aware that the life we are living is not life-giving. We know we need to share this awareness with someone with whom we feel safe, we need to experience compassion and welcome to a new life – one that truly is life-affirming of us and within us. We need to ‘come home’ to ourselves to that Quiet Light that shines within each of us.
Eremos was born in response to a passage in the Gospel according to Mark 6:29 where Jesus invited his disciples to ‘come away to a quiet, solitary desert place and rest awhile’. Like the woman I met recently, it is a place where we open to God’s tender mercy and find a way to go home.
So many people today are struggling to find the strength and courage they need to live each day. What a blessing it is to offer a ray of hope because we know the experience of hope and the difference it makes in the journey through darkness.
As you journey into and through your moments of darkness, may you know you are not alone. A light, a prayer is held for you here at Eremos and in the heart of God. May you also be that light of hope for others whose lives you touch each day.
