This past weekend, I attended a retreat to complete three years of training in the ministry of spiritual direction. For this week’s entries on Still Forming, I’ll be posting reflections gleaned from the retreat that made me think of you and this space throughout the weekend.

On my very first morning of training in spiritual direction three years ago, we entered the chapel on the retreat grounds for a short service of welcome and blessing. I stepped inside the chapel you see featured in the photo above and was immediately stopped short in amazement at its arresting beauty and grandeur. 

The far wall of the chapel is nothing but windows that look out upon groves of trees and flowers and sky. The high wooden beams on the ceiling seem to extend upwards for miles and create a sense of safety and solidity to those seated within that place. One far wall is nothing but a stained glass window of dark blues and greens and reds offered in tribute to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat inside this chapel and simply stared in silence at this wall of windows or up at the cedar-like beams, drinking in the silence and holiness of that place. 

God has met me here many times these last three years.

When I need a place of respite or silent holiness, this is place I go. When I have met on retreat with my Audire community over the last three years, I looked forward with great anticipation to the Taize services we would share inside this chapel on the first night of each retreat.

God is in this place.

Do you have a holy space like this in your life? What is it like? How did you discover it? What does it offer your spirit in communion with God?