Seeing Our Greatness in Another's Eyes

Dr. Molli Marti, a a wife, mom, researcher, educator, psychologist, lawyer, author, and motivational speaker suggests we should let others see their own greatness when looking in our eyes.    I was struck by that quote because I think I saw it in action this week in our center.

It was a busy week even by our standards.  We had a group of young men and women from Georgetown who were here for a directed retreat.  In all corners of the center we saw director/directee conferences going on,  people sitting quietly with bible and journal in hand, and, although on silence, they communicated a real joy at being given this opportunity of stillness and quiet.  Something was opening in their hearts and I think their staff conveyed the depth of compassion that brought that joy out in each of them.  What a blessing to have shared the week with them. 

We also had two series begin this week –Yoga, a physical, mental and spiritual discipline  from the Hindu tradition, and Focusing a western practice which allows you to discover the voice of your body and the felt sense of inner wisdom that we discover within it.  Both practices open our hearts to a core  “at-home-ness” which manifests both peace and joy in their expressions.  When we are comfortable within ourselves we enable others who enter our world to be fully themselves.  When we see our own greatness and our own peace emerge, there is a transparency within us that allows, in our encounters, the greatness of others to be reflected back to them. 

On Thursday our Women’s Salon had their monthly meeting and there was a deep sharing by Alana Coppola, body work practitioner, who utilizes the energy of the angels in her healing.  Her deep faith and energy were evident as well as the presence of Angels Ariel, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Celestina, and others.   It was a healing time and again we could see our own greatest in the eyes of Alana as her healing prayer touched each person present.

And finally yesterday, our charism day, we were blessed with Megan McKenna who has written more than 50 books.   She challenged us to see the parable of the Prodigal Son in a whole new way.  She said parables should shock us, they should be like a sink hole that takes the ground right from under us, they should seep into our hearts not by a sense of “happy ever after” but by a momentary glimpse into ourselves that transforms and shocks us into seeing the “potential of ourselves” and the “reality of ourselves”.    When she left, of course, we knew we were both the prodigal son and the elder brother but our hope of reconciliation depended entirely on our willingness to honestly confront our greed, our selfishness, and our unwillingness to truly KNOW the love of our Father and what that calls forth in us.  We could see our own greatness in Megan’s eyes but not until she kicked us around a bit and shocked us into realizing we were not what we thought we were.  She told us we can never get to heaven on our own.  We need each other – community, relationship, togetherness – we will make it into heaven together or not at all.  Our life depends on our ability to live the relationship we find in the Trinity.

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