It is the beginning of August and I’m well under way into my program at the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA. At the end of this journey, I will receive my certification as an Interfaith Spiritual Director and then I will be able to competently (legitimately?) work with others in their own personal discernment and relationship to the Divine – or God/the Sacred/Source or whatever holy name one might refer to the Divine and the Divine’s presence in their own lives.
I emphasized the word “legitimately” above because, for many years now, I feel like I have already been accompanying others on their spiritual paths through my work in Liturgical Music and Music Ministry. I have played the piano, sang and led music for countless weekend Masses, funerals, weddings and other liturgical events. I lead hundreds of small children in song at the church school where I teach music – teaching them inspiring and heart-centered songs that bring messages of hope, peace, human-connection and awareness of others that may or may not be like us.
So, I say legitimately because, after certification, I will hopefully be able to make some sort of sustaining living/personal income while working in an “official” capacity as a Spiritual Director, like many in my life whom I call mentors and friends. I will be able to go into various settings and circumstances (retreat centers, prisons, places of worship, etc.) and provide Spiritual Direction to those who might be seeking it, with substantial education and training under my belt.
When I was asked to integrate creativity and spirituality in some artistic medium for my Spiritual Director program, the image on the canvas pictured above was what came through me – from the Divine, into my heart, my mind, and then out through my hands and fingers that were holding the brush… I would say guiding the brush, but really… I was not guiding anything… I was being led… and I followed.
The following is the description that I wrote to accompany this experience, and describe this Image of God that I created one Friday night while being purposefully open and listening to soft music in the quiet of my room…
“I am a 49-year-old woman who sees God in my life as everything above me, below me, around me and within me. God, to me, is the Beginning, the Alpha and the Omega, the Source of all life and the very breath we breathe. God is the bestower of darkness and light and all that is life-giving and good… the Creator of all life and the Spirit of Love. God is our forward motion and our Peace when we are still. Neither female or male – and both female and male. God is love… pure and perfect love.”
Thank you for reading… peace.
XO, Denise