Seeking Shelter (05/08/2024)

Last evening, I was meeting with a group at our parish center. We opened with prayer and were into our discussion when all our cell phones went off. We knew the sound; there was tornado warning for our location. We checked our phones and learned that our area was under a warning until 8:30. There was no basement in the center; however, I’d been through this before. I knew the safest place. We picked up all our stuff, headed through the kitchen, each of us grabbing a chair for the long wait, and made our way to the only interior room without windows. And then we sat and continued our discussions until the warning expired. Then we ended with a prayer, returned our chairs, and left together, safely.

As we sat in that interior room, huddled together like sardines in a can, my mind kept going to Teresa of Avila and her hallmark text, The Interior Castle. If you’ve never read it, it is worth the time and the read. Teresa guides us inward, recognizing the spiritual gifts and challenges at every depth. The gem at the center is the truth that it is in our relationship with our LORD that we find peace and wholeness, that we discover ourselves as we are created to be.

Teresa recognized that it is not the externals that make us who we are called to be. They are simply dressings upon our being. Teresa’s insights lead us to shed these for the essential of our being, our relationship with our LORD. As I sat this morning on my porch for coffee and prayer, the memory of last evening’s search for safety in the interior room returned. And I took time to look at what is essential, truly essential. And I prayed to the LORD for help to hold tightly to that which makes me who I am and let go of those things that only camouflage my need for the life giving and lifesaving love of my LORD and my sisters and brothers.

As we continue our journeys in faith, buoyed by hope in the promise of our LORD, and fueled by the love of the LORD, let us seek to find the only true shelter, a loving relationship with our LORD. Let us search for that interior room within wherein we are who we are created to be and who we are called to be. Let us search prayerfully. Let us search honestly. Let us pray that the LORD may guide us home to Him and to ourselves.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.