Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Two sins have my people committed: they have forsaken me, a spring of living water and they have hewn out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah: 2:13

Forsaken me, a living spring, and hewn out cisterns. Jeremiah is using action verbs with HD quality visual impact. As for the nouns, we can all imagine a living spring- the image brings to mind a sense of peace and natural wonder, a cistern, from the Greek, was a lime plastered basket to catch rain water. The words and images are very powerful.

Reflecting on the images of water, especially the juxtaposition of a living spring and a cracked rain water cistern brought me back to the Jersey Shore in the late 1970’s. At the time, environmental visionary’s succeeded in limiting the development of the Pine Barrens- a huge track of land beneath which flows a magnificent aquifer. Thirty miles due east sits the legendary Jersey Shore- magnificent as well, but then “cracked”- the shore was littered with medical waste, most notably syringes and broken hypodermics, courtesy of illegal ocean dumping. Where would you go to spend a quiet summer day? The modern day example mirrors the crystal clear choice Jeremiah is hammering home.

So…okay. We get it. No one wants to own a cracked cistern or go to a polluted beach. That leaves the question: how do we travel to the Pines, to the living and grace filled waters of a relationship with God? There are, in fact many travel options, check Google maps and/or attend worship at St Francis every week to discover them.

I can share a simple travel plan (a stay-cation) that I recently rediscovered- the Breath Prayer. You breathe in, you breathe out. Choose covenant words to let you be prayerful and mindful in that simple body process. A priest I recently met, who has worked with contemplative prayer, offers this: acceptance (in breath), surrender (out breath). Acceptance, surrender. Acceptance, surrender. Acceptance, surrender. Surely this simple practice is a passport to a holy place of living waters- to a deeper relationship with God.

(Gail Bourque)