Food for the Body , Food for the Soul
By Jan Gonder
Life is a journey ,” Bette Caldwell wrote about this Lenten class offering . When eight persons gathered around the table last February , we six students knew only that we were going to share dinner with the other class members and take lessons in developing spiritual practices – whatever those might be . With only the class description to guide us at the start , we met in Room 207 and enjoyed a great meal and launched a spiritual adventure .
As anyone who has planned and led a class knows , it doesn ’ t just happen . This one was born out of a discussion among Sherry Burch , Ellen Evans Agee , and the Mission Team , and then with Senior Pastor John Woodall . As Ellen commented at the first Mission Team meeting of the year in September , it was clear that people in the group wanted something deeper – a way to rebuild connections to God for the church . We would carry out the church ’ s current theme , “ Until all are fed ,” in several ways before we finished . In fact , weeks after the class was over , both Sherry and Ellen ’ s voices reflected excitement over the ideas that came out of discussion , planning , and attendance at class . Although it began with a desire to bring out the labyrinth that had sat unused for several years , the class took on deeper meaning and presented a much larger variety of spiritual practices that we could develop more fully as individuals or as a group .
John was especially eager to invite Mary Garbesi , a licensed Spiritual Director , to share her experience in practices that would open us up to ancient – yet still fresh and new – approaches to prayer , contemplation , and communication with God and with one another . She generally began each class by forming us into a circle . Lights were dimmed , and she lit a candle in the center to represent God ’ s presence . Music , Scripture , and poetry drew us away from mundane thoughts and opened paths to the mysteries that are God . Then , the lessons and practice began . Conscious breathing ( four counts inhaling , eight counts exhaling ) steadied and guided us from the start . Lectio divina (“ divine reading ”) gave us a four-part method of approaching Scripture that allowed us to engage in conversation with
Christ . Reading (“ Lectio ”) allowed us to listen to the inner message of Scripture . Prayer (“ Oratio ”) is a prayer that accompanies the reading – we speak to God and hear
God “ when we read the divine saying ” ( St . Ambrose ).
Finally , meditation (“ Meditatio ”) was presented as communion with God , and Contemplation (“ Complatio ”) is silent prayer that expresses love for God . Later in the series , when John Woodall explained the labyrinth tradition and displayed a table labyrinth , we realized we wanted to share the experience of walking it with the congregation . On Good Friday we offered the opportunity and were glad to see many people taking advantage of it , especially after the service in The Loft .
I
joined for the lightest of reasons – classes took place on Tuesday evenings , and there was no conflict with handbell rehearsals . I missed the camaraderie of courses I had taken in the past and wanted something deeper to take the place of Stephen Ministry and Disciple . Here are some other students ’ thoughts with respect to the class and the
10 experience in general :
Lynn Woods described her experience as “ reconnecting with the deeper spiritual side of myself , leading to renewal .” She ’ d had formal training in many of these traditions . She saw this class as a way of bringing light to intuition and connecting them , centering and grounding her . Of all the processes John used , she said , the brainstorming for a creative writing project – taking a psalm and crafting one of our own – helped her in plumbing the depths .
Kimberly Britts discovered that conscious breathing and centering prayer worked best for her . Those could be done while she was waiting for the household to wake up , and those two practices gave her a calming start to the day .
Bette Caldwell discovered that journals and centering prayer filled her needs . In the centering prayer , we each assigned our own sacred word like “ love ,” “ hope ,” “ shalom ” to God and used that word alone to express the intention of being in God ’ s presence .
Mary Garbesi , though not a student , said she liked the schedule of having supper and then going into the practice time . She found the class was “ an opportunity to learn some ways of praying and deepening one ’ s relationship with God . Spiritual practices offer the opportunity to be intentionally and consciously in the presence of God and open to the grace available to us .”
Sherry Burch went into the class seeking guidance in learning concrete practices and details . The class met those expectations . Beyond that , she found herself happily surprised that we made connections and formed a closeknit group . She found , as many of us discovered , that it was hard to do the work by ourselves during the week and hard to keep going . As she said , “ The community of church is so important . It is church . It is worship .”