finding God in the minuitae of words

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” 

~Mrs. Whatsit in A Wrinkle in Time,

Madeleine L'Engle

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“The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us--loves us so much that we the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed everyday". Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. ” 

~Kathleen Norris,

 The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Woman's "Work"

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What are you doing September 13 to the 15th?

There’s still time to join me at Cedarbrake Renewal Center for the “Writing as Prayer” retreat. It’s going to be a wonderful weekend at one of my favorite retreat centers. Come, follow the sign!

You can write me for more information: mymaria@me.com Or check out the official blurp below, and how to register here: 

Writing as Prayer: Sept 13-15

Join us for a weekend exploring writing as a tool for fostering intimate prayer. We will use guided writing exercises, visual and musical props to invite participants into spiritual conversations with the sacred. Anne Klock, flutist, will provide the sacred music for this retreat. NO writing skills are required, only a willingness to ponder and listen—with pen in hand!

France, Mary, and me

in a side chapel at Rouen Cathedral, I discovered this treasure

On our recent pilgrimage of the great French Cathedrals we encountered countless pieces of religious art.  But as my insightful mother in law MarySue Schriber noted, 

“good art shows you something new that you haven’t thought of before, as distinct from confirming what you already know.” 

I've been pondering on that, and came up with a few images of Mary from our pilgrimage that helped me discover something about the Mother of Jesus, by opening up my memory--and my imagination.

the "hipped" Mary at Amiens

AND at Compiegne--love her stance!

My first draft of  “The Seekers Guide to Mary” was completely journalistic.  I covered everything:  Mary in relation to scripture, history, other faith traditions, shrines and prayers. 

But my editor at Loyola Press kept pushing me, urging me to say it, “in my own voice.”  It was the hardest thing I had ever faced as a writer—and the best thing I've been pushed to do. 

Mary has always been part of my life as a Hispanic Catholic.  But how do I explain that to you?  The process of rewriting and editing that book made me focus on my own relationship with Mary, and it made me work on how to explain it to other people. 

Caen

Crypt chapel, Chartres

Notre-Dame-la-Grande, Poitier

I had to learn that it was—or rather, it is—through my own stories as a youth, as a mother,  with my own family that I can best tell you about Mary. 

I once heard author Madeline L'Engle say at a writers’ retreat that, yes, it's all been said before. But we have to tell it in our own voice.

At a personal level, that’s how Mary makes sense to me. 

the three kings, Epiphany at St-Pierre de Chauvigny

and the Annunciation (back), with demons and angels watching (front)

Madeleine L'Engle and I

Thanks to my son, Christopher, I have a last-minute addition to my Christmas wish list: Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices, a collection of 50 or so interviews with the people who knew her most intimately.

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) is perhaps best recognized as the author of A Wrinkle in Time, the incredible fantasy fiction that won her the 1963 John Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature almost 50 years ago. But she was also a memoirist, a writer of adult fiction and nonfiction, much of it spiritual in nature.

As a reviewer pointed out, Listening for Madeleine  is the closest you'll ever get to hanging out with Madeleine L'Engle.

But, in truth, I did have a relationship (of sorts) with this talented author.

In my late 20s and early 30s,Madeleine and her work were formative for me as a developing writer and first-time author.  I was a young mother with four children in grade school who dreamt about writing during any and all "free time" (sarcasm here). 

That's when I discovered a fellow sojourner in Madeleine's Crosswicks journals.

In her beautiful book Circle of Quiet, I got to "know" an award winning author who was also an honest, funny woman who struggled with her desire to intersperse her writing and teaching career with raising three children, not to mention maintaining an apartment in New York and a historical farmhouse called "Crosswicks." Is it wrong that I smiled when I read that she suffered a decade of rejections before her books was published?

I first met Madeleine L’Engle at a writers’ retreat that she led annually at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas. Wearing colorful clothing and wild, big earrings, she had a formidable, even intimidating, presence addressing our small group of artists. 

But she was also present to each person talking one-on-one, encouraging, and always smiling. Going on that retreat was transformational. It was also my Christmas present for two years combined, not so much because of the cost, but because it required me to be gone for five whole days, an eternity for the at-home parent holding the fort with our awesome foursome!

I also had the pleasure of interviewing Madeleine in New York City, just prior to the birth of Madeleine's first great- grandchild, Konstantinos John Voiklis. On November 29 of this year, that room where we met--the Diocesan House of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side--was dedicated as a Literary Landmark, in honor of the nearly four decades that Madeleine wrote and worked in its library. 

At that interview, I was struck by her intensity and devotion to her craft. Madeleine was a surprisingly quiet person whose voice filled with passion when she reflected on subjects that she cared about deeply—writing, faith, relationships. 

I remember how she talked in short sentences and often paused before she spoke. 

“I know my best work is unself-conscious. When I’m really writing," Madeleine explained in a bedtime-story voice, "I’m listening, and I’m not in control. That’s when I finish and look back and say, ‘I wrote that?’”

Three links:

•  to read one of my published profiles of Madeleine L'Engle, go to St. Anthony Messenger magazine archives here.

• to read a beautiful and personal description of the Crosswicks home written by Madeleine's granddaughter, Léna Roy, go here.

• And to watch a video of L'Engle speaking about writing and being a Christian, go to this interview re-published earlier this year in Religion & Ethics newsweekly.