Held in Love


3rd May 2020
By Peter Millar
Peter Millar, a friend of Eremos in Scotland, writes a regular message to his friends across the world. Here are a few of his reflections in these times of sheltering in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Held in Love

Peter Millar, a friend of Eremos in Scotland, writes a regular message to his friends across the world. Here are a few of his reflections in these times of sheltering in place.

 

‘For every step we take towards God, God takes a thousand steps towards us.’  These beautiful words paraphrased from the Koran speak of a God who sits with us where we sit, in all of our uncertainty and muddle and contradiction. And there is an even greater truth in those words. Even the slightest inclination of our hearts toward the divine fills our life with God’s possibilities. Saint Simeon, a visionary theologian, put it this way: “Radiant in his Light, we awaken to the knowledge that we are held in love in every part of our body.”


For centuries, all the world’s religious traditions have invited us to discover within ourselves a continuous expansion of heart and spirit. We forget this in our often frenetic life-styles, but these virus weeks have caused us to halt and become aware in fresh ways of our amazingly rich humanity.


Just pause as you read this and listen to that inner voice which tells you that your life is both unique and precious; that you carry within you the possibility of discovering a guiding Light which will not go out. Befriend that inner strength which enables you to keep searching, to be alive to new insights, to encounter these fresh truths which can change the way you think about everything. 
 

Shed any pent up bitterness. Laugh at your own limitations. Look outwards, phone a friend (you don’t need Zoom!) and hear the bird song above the silent streets.  


In concluding, I offer John O’Donohue’s words of invitation and assurance.


This is the time to be slow
 

This is the time to be slow,
to lie low to the wall
until the bitter weather passes.


Try, as best you can, 
not to let the wire brush of doubt
scrape from your heart
all sense of yourself
and your hesitant light.


If you remain generous
time will come good,
and you will find your feet again
on fresh pastures of promise
where the air will be kind
and blushed with beginning.
                                

From Benedictus: Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue.


Peter Millar may be reached at ionacottage@hotmail.com
 

 

<< Previous | Next >>