Home!

“I long, as does every human being, 

to be at home wherever I find myself.”

-Maya Angelou

Home! That's the subject line from an email of my friend who just came back from a short, sweet, "very, very great" vacation.

I describe home as that place where I feel welcome as I am. Where I am allowed to be who I am. Accepted as I am. Where I feel comfortable. No posturing. No games played. No intrigues. I guess with that description, the home I am talking about is not a physical place, but a space reserved for me. I can say with confidence that in this life, one of my homes is my wife's heart. I am all of the above in her heart.

Another is St Placid Priory where I am nourished, heart, body, and soul. The nuns provide a space for me, physical and emotional and spiritual, when I visit. Then there's my oblate community. They are not names and faces, but souls. When we meet, we are a gathering of souls, of hearts.

The home improvement project that consumes me is this home called "Roy." It's my life project. The makeover will last that long. And only if I stay on it, without resting, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. With God's grace and blessing, I want it to be a house of prayer, where Alleluia is the first word of the day, where Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus is constantly chanted, where Amen is the last word uttered every night.

Ultimately, my home is the Beloved. With the Holy One, I am more or less than the "I am" I think I know. I am loved more than I can understand, more than I can bear.

How about you? Where or what is home for you? What is the invitation do you hear in Jesus' words: "My house is the house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves?"

Let's have a few moments of silence for those without a home, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Even those I will bring 

to My holy mountain. 

And make them joyful in My house of prayer. 

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices 

will be acceptable on My altar; 

For My house will be called a house of prayer 

for all the peoples.

-Isaiah 56