AN AWESOME PLACE

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven," Jacob exclaimed in what most of us would consider  the most unlikely of places -a stony wilderness (Gen. 28. 17).  I have found the patriarch’s words to be so true in what most people would dismiss as secular, as distinct from sacred, places such as church.  I discovered God’s awesome presence manifest in a hospital ward -in the medical staff who continued Christ’s ministry of healing, in the patients, including me, who readily identified with Christ in His weakness and suffering.  Above all, Jesus came to me in the Sacrament of the Sick and in the Blessed Sacrament.

The same has proved true over the past half century, during which I’ve been in and out of hospital.   Each time I’ve found God to be there; each time it’s been awesome.

Now, at eighty five, I’m too frail, for the moment, to leave my room.  Certainly, a constricted existence, but not a bleak one.   Thank God, every effort is being made to keep me in my Dominican community!   I’m living in a house of prayer.  Although I can’t be physically present with my brothers in church for community prayer, I can be there with them in spirit.  

This sense of belonging to a praying community is strengthened as I look out of my window.   There I see the roof top, the towers of our church and the eight bells which I’ve photographed.

They chime to summon my brothers to Mass and the Divine Office; they joyfully peel to proclaim the marital celebration of a couple’s loving commitment.  One of those bells solemnly, mournfully tolls to call the faithful to pray for the eternal salvation of one our recently deceased brothers or sisters.  These bells loudly proclaim to those within ear-shot our faith in God being in our midst (the meaning of, “Emmanuel.”)  They summon people to worship.   These bells provide an eloquent form of preaching.  In my room I can, in spirit, respond to their call to prayer.

That’s where for now I spend all my time. That’s where I must seek and find God.  As I raise my head above the view of the church and its bells I see a small old crucifix hanging on the wall -I received this cross at my First Communion, nearly eighty years ago!  If ever I needed a reminder of God’s loving compassion I find it there.   In my weakness I can identify with the crucified Christ, and He with me.   I can recall, in His dying moments, His entrusting His Church, including me, to His Beloved Mother.   That crucifix reminds me that my room is a sacred, awesome place.

So, does my community, as it practises the works of mercy in visiting the sick and comforting the afflicted -me.  Individually they come and keep me company and we have a good laugh.   Each one of them is the temple of the Holy Spirit -and so I am   surround by the sacred! Together they come to celebrate my receiving the Sacrament of the Sick and Our Lord Himself in the Blessed Eucharist.  They give me a sense of very much belonging to a  caring Dominican  house of prayer.  That means so much to me, since I have been a member of the Order of Preachers for nearly seventy years.   That is my life -the very air I breath.

But you don’t have to be a Dominican to realise that you can meet God whatever your walk of life, in whatever circumstance you find yourself.  If you are sensitive to His presence you will realise that the whole of creation proclaims the glory of God.  The secular becomes sacred.  I have come to realise that even when I’ve walked in the ‘valley of darkness’ the Good Shepherd has been with me, guiding me, protecting me. The same is true for you.  That really is awesome!!!

Isidore O.P.