April 13, 2011

Is there a building where your soul finds shelter?

That is a spiritual question for you to ponder. For some of us there is a place where we feel most free, most generous and most blessed. It may be St Paul’s. Have you noticed that when you look up into the rafters, the ceiling looks like an upside-down ship? That is an intentional reference to the biblical metaphor of Jesus with the disciples on the sea, calming the storm. Your church is a shelter in the storms of life.

Perhaps it is a community building like the art gallery pictured on the front of the bulletin. The AGA houses works that are transformational. It is a place to be moved in the depth of your spirit by art that is on view for everyone.

For others it may be a place in memory: a childhood church, a cottage, or a grandparent’s home. The back cover of the enclosed bulletin is a hundred year-old log cabin, with new stained glass windows. It has been a home from which people were nurtured to go into the world and into the generations, and now it speaks both of that heritage and the lively reality of a family at play.

Whether architecture speaks to you in awe or in comfort, I hope you will take a few minutes this week to consider how your soul finds shelter. Sheltered, we become strengthened to venture outside once again and face the storms.

And through the storm, Jesus sits with us in the boat, and keeps us intact.

Blessings,

The Rev. Dr. Catherine Faith MacLean