Margaret's Path - A Labyrinth at Evensong

Behind the Chapel, in a developing garden setting, there is a labyrinth known as Margaret's Path. The labyrinth is named for Margaret Maurais, Marie's sister, who died at a young age of ALS. She was a person of prayer, laughter, and gentleness who knew the path to centeredness and lovingly invited others to join her on it.

Margaret's path is a seven-circuit labyrinth made from Boston style red clay bricks inlaid in a grass bed. It was designed by Rev. Patti Keeler and Rev. Marie David and many different caring hands helped to inlay the hundreds of bricks it took to outline the labyrinth.

               

                     Top left:  Rev. Patti Keeler setting the labyrinth. Top Right: Two retreatants walking the labyrinth. Bottom left: Baby at labyrinth center.
Bottom Right: Participants in the 2010 Labyrinth Walk.

 

Walking a Labyrinth

The labyrinth design is a geometrical pattern that has one well-defined path that leads into center and back out again. Unlike a maze, there are no dead ends, no intersecting paths. As you enter the labyrinth to begin this walking meditation, it is suggested that you move slowly, with attention to each step. The journey inward to the center of the labyrinth mirrors the experience of the journey inward to your own center. With each step inward you gently allow any distractions and anxieties to be left behind, surrendering yourself and opening yourself to the journey. The center of the labyrinth is where one receives. Be open to receive what is there for you: peace, clarity, awakening, insight, guidance. The return back out of the labyrinth is a time for communion, reunion, remembering. Being granted the power to act. Allow yourself to take back into the world whatever experience this labyrinth walk held for you.

Suggested Guidelines for Your Walk:

1.  As you give yourself permission to allow for the experience of this walking meditation, please acknowledge, honor, and grant others you meet along the path, the same.

2. Find your own pace: Allow your body, and not your mind to determine your own natural rhythm. You may pass others, you may stop along the way at any point, you may allow others to pass you.

3. Be intentional: Ask yourself: What do I need? What do I seek? May I be open to experience the experience?

 

A Brief History and Overview of Labyrinths

Unlike walking a maze which is an designed to challenge you with its intersecting paths and dead ends, a labyrinth design incorporates a 'unicursal' pattern that leads you to center along a meandering path and back out again along the same path. It is a meditative path of prayer that is designed to bring you into awareness of your relationship with God, of your wholeness; body, mind and spirit.

The oldest known documented labyrinth design is from Crete and dated to 3000 BCE, or about 5000 years old. During the early Middle Ages, there was a cathedral building boom across Europe. Twenty-two of these cathedrals were built, mostly in France and Italy, with labyrinths placed in their floors. The only surviving original labyrinth of that era rests in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, built in 1201, upon which our canvas labyrinth is modeled. These labyrinths served as symbolic journeys for pilgrims unable to reach the Holy Land because of war, disease, and inaccessibility of Jerusalem at different times in history. In fact, the centers of these labyrinths were known as "The New Jerusalem." Pilgrimage to one of these cathedrals, and walking the labyrinths within them, fulfilled the seeker's religious commitment of journeying to Jerusalem.

A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken in search of the sacred. We step out of the observer role and venture into that of the participant, with God and with each other, in search of God's grace, guidance, nurturance, and renewal in our lives. The three-fold path of the pilgrim, as coined by the 16th century mystic Theresa of Avila, provides a guideline that can be applied to walking the labyrinth. Our walk in, towards center, we begin the symbolic path of purgation, of releasing, letting-go, quieting the mind and surrendering. The center represents illumination, opening to the Divine. Our return path is union or communion, strengthened from our journey and being granted the power to act within our community. Although we walk this path as individuals, and sometimes we may feel lost and not know where we are on the path, we are walking with others, who may also feel the same. We each find our own natural rhythm, a pace that may change throughout our time on the labyrinth. This is the pace our body wants to go, not our mind. We may feel a need to stop along the way. We may need to pass someone whose pace is slower than our own. We may follow in another's footsteps. We will also come 'face to face' with others along the path. How do we negotiate our meetings with others as we move along the path? What concerns, joys, or questions come up for us as we walk our spiritual paths? Our journey within the vessel of the labyrinth thus becomes a metaphor for our journey through life. (Rev. Patti Keeler)