sacred and secular

“There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred,

and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.”

                                                           Madeleine L'Engle

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the place where the animals sheltered

became the place where the Sacred sheltered

the common, dusty roads of Palestine

became the place where

Sacred was shared

the gravel roads I walk each morning

as the sun rises

and happy dog dances

becomes my sanctuary where Sacred resides

Sacred too are the precious souls

who come to the place I work

to share, to struggle, to heal

and Sacred are the tired grey heads

to join on Sunday morning

to stir the embers of faith

Sacred is the one who mutters along the side walk

a hundred voices in his head

and Sacred to the single mother who amidst

the chaos of a cluttered living room

hugs her child

even the halls of the mighty

can be Sacred

those places where laws are past

and Sacred too, those souls

tangled in the web of power and wealth

the Sacred is sometimes difficult to see

to touch

but there is nothing, and no one

so “secular”

so immersed in the way of desecration

that the embers of

holiness cannot be stirred

it is our job

to stir the embers of our own soul into fire

that we live love, compassion, generosity, acceptance

to so live

as Sacred children

that we become the power

that bends the world

toward Bethlehem