The Sacred Space Within – Our own Garden 

The words sacred space are used frequently. Often to define a physical location, somewhere where we have a special connection, a mystical relationship that while cannot be articulated, is known and understood. 

Many of these sacred spaces are secret to us as well. They don’t just have to be physical spaces, it could be a photograph an old letter, or something from a loved one who has passed. It’s a big spectrum.

Each one of these places is made sacred by ourselves, or by association. One of the most sacred spaces for many is a cemetery. The cemetery is not just a giant sacred garden, holding the remains of loved ones, and perhaps some unloved ones, under care and safety; it is a place of solace.  Each one of these places it’s not just sacred because it is a cemetery or graveyard, but because it holds something special for us. The remains and memories of a loved one can be revisited, and the relationship with that person renewed in some way or at least remembered. It’s a shrine of sorts.

There are many examples of these sacred spaces in our world, but one of the places which is the most sacred space is often ignored;  or at least misunderstood. That is the sacred space within. Each of us has the divine dwelling vibrantly within us. There are many references both theological and experiential to prove this point. In the short reflection, I’m not going to go there. Let’s just accept that God made us in his image and therefore the divinity of God resides within us. Even if we don’t feel it always. 

For those of us who perhaps don’t accept that, there is still a holy longing driving everyone in the world looking for that inner peace, this holy sanctum within where we are not rocked by every issue in the world; or experience encountered.

In search of this inner peace, we spend a huge amount of time looking outside. Identifying people, methods, techniques, faith paths, advice and counseling to find a way forward. To go deeper. Well, there’s nothing wrong with this outward-looking perspective, but we can miss the whole picture. We can become a jumble of opinions, beliefs, and rituals, that show everyone else who we are, yet not recognizing ourselves.

So, I would like you to think, just for a moment, of yourself not being mobile. I mean your true self. The one that’s within that many don’t really know that well. The one that perhaps we don’t know that well. One way of doing this is to think of ourselves as something static rather than doing all the visiting around the world, where we’re entering their space. Rather they are entering our space. 

For a moment, think of yourself as a garden. A place where people can enter and see all the things and characteristics that are you; by the things that are in the garden. The items that are truly you. This is the place, an interior place, where we can truly explore what’s happening in our lives. What the effect of the rain and the storms, and the sunshine, and the new growth, and the old all reside together. Happily, in this space. This internal sacred space is our soul. 

Visit this space once in a while, explore what’s there and you will not find others’ opinions or handouts. You will find what you have taken from all the others and internalized, is then made yours. This is the place where when you take the photographs, they are not of someone else, they are of you. The person you have become, the person you are becoming with new growth, different seasons. The parts that are under repair and the ones that are blooming. They are all you. Not someone else. This is you; this is your essence. This is the unique and eternal soul that only you have and own. Even if you have never visited your garden. Perhaps just take a gentle stroll now and again. 

So go ahead and enter the mystery that is you alone, and see how many who have visited you, and strolled through your garden picking the fruit from trees you didn’t even know were there. 

In the garden

I am the ground

I am the flowers

I am the petals

I am the perfume

I am

I feel the rain

I feel the wind

I feel the sun

I feel

I cannot run

I cannot hide

I cannot leave

For I am Mother Earth

I am

I am nourished

I am rich

I am beauty

I am one

I am the garden

And invite visitors

And growers

And farmers

And lovers

To walk

And plant

And play

In the garden that is me

So no need to be afraid

Or build walls

Or fences

Or gates

For I am here and I am open

For all to see

And feel

For a garden cannot hide

In the new Eden

And neither can Eve

Poem, reflection and image Copyright 2024 Michael J. Cunningham OFS