I have often said many sources of sacred writing do not come directly from Scripture. A while back, I discovered one such inspiration when one of my parishioners mentioned a quote from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.
The concept of “letting everything happen to you: beauty and terror” seems a perfect description of this uncertain time. Every day I can feel this palpable tension between the light and dark forces that swirl around us. Reports of violence and unrest unfolding in our streets are often juxtaposed by images of a sunlit path underneath changing leaves that invite you to walk under their canopy.
Perhaps this time of pandemic is indeed that time when we must just let everything happen to us. We have no choice. Beauty and terror walk hand in hand in our world today.
This message is an excerpt from a Women of the ELCA blog by Jennifer Michael. Today we remember Catherine of Siena, theologian, who died in 1380.
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