Journal/Coast to Coast—Day 6

Journal/ Coast to Coast—Day 6

Date: August 27th, 2017/ Rosthwaite to Grasmere
                                                     I Have Not Forgotten You

Sunday morning…
The liturgy began.  The entrance hymn sung by a host of sheep bellowing as they rushed to their mother’s nipples to ‘drink’…
This metaphor…my opening prayer…
“Feed me gentle Mother from the abundance of this earth’s substance.”
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The procession was a soft blanket of green grasses, it changed into a stony pathway but the Gospel call was to “Come.”  Here I pause…what will I write?

The pastor was the present pasture leading to far off never lands~~~
Yes, the pastor was ‘being’ itself…every living thing…a being~~~ a pastor proclaiming this liturgy ignited by the sun breaking open the clouds.  Cows frolicked in the fields, chewing cud.  They would not wait for communion—why should they?
Bread broken and shared, the soft grasses dampened by dew—a banquet of plenty.

There was no sitting for this service.  Oh, once or twice I found a rock that said, “Come, I’ll hold you.”  The congregation swept in and out~~~voices laughing, some just rising, whenever, however they entered this Holy of Holies it was their beginning…

The first reading was simple.  It allowed the sweet swelling of silence to ensue.  For whatever was meant to ‘arrive’—the ‘space’ would be open.  The responsorial psalm was sung by the choir masters…birds~~~angels with wings and their voices lifted to the belfry of the steeples~~~endless steeples carved by an unseen hand.  Every once in a while I gazed upon a finger print leading to a page turning itself over to the second reading.

A glance back allowed the reading to ripple…wave after wave~~~endless miles lasting forever…NOW.

The ALLELUIA pierced the space…a mist set in fast and furious—The Gospel begun…nothing visible on the tops of these mountains.  Trusting steps, each step taken laid ground work for the service’s consummation—no act need make THIS moment real.  We  were in the living presence of YOU whom I shall not name. You were in us…have I forgotten You?  This, I thought, I heard You ask.  But why?

Here, now—I know I am because You are.  Swallowed in this landscape, You are bigger than this speck I AM.  I’m humbled realizing You have sought me here to see in what is invisible…every direction shielded~~~spirit in all vapor drizzling down.  I AM following this Gospel and it is more clearly manifested in a clarity that can only be grasped from the chambers of the heart.

I heard beating…but, was it mine?  A window opened for a short time allowing ‘in’ the enormity of this chapel space.  THIS cathedral I am in does not end.  My prayers became like bogs sucking me into earth, releasing me only to step into another.

A rapid descent opened a doorway to this day’s final rest…
“Careful, Careful, Careful” the rocks cried out…”Step softly”—Try as I might to explain this liturgy something spoke inside me…You are in this liturgy NOW—it is ALIVE.

“Remember…I have not forgotten you~~~you are carved in the terrain of my being.  Before you were, I AM.  Go in peace…love and serve Her who lights the moon and stars and the celestial wonders you still have ahead of you.  Your time is not come—when it does, they will all be there to greet you.

NOW, and again Go in Peace…Be Peace…
I AM with you always until the end of age…

I have not forgotten you…”
“…Therefore let the moon shine on thee in thy solitary walk; and let the misty mountain winds be free to blow against thee: and in after years, when these wild ecstasies shall be matured into a sober pleasure, when thy mind shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, thy memory be as a dwelling-place for all sweet sounds and harmonies; Oh! then, if solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts of tender joy wilt thou remember me, and these my exhortations…

(A portion from William Wordsworth’s Lines Written a few Miles Above Tintern Abbey)