A short year ago I identified my heart's desire as sharing life in the unfinished. Followers of Ignatian spirituality and students of contemporary authors such as Eckhart Tolle and Wayne Dyer will recognize the practice of stating one's intention at the outset of a meditation, prayer period, pilgrimage, project , or commitment. To be in touch with one's deepest and most encompassing desire is revelatory , visionary in nature, and bears within it the uncanny power to manifest. Of course it is the Mystery we call God Who implants and empowers such envisioning ~ until what you see is what you get!
I was seeing unfinished rev business and my desire to share life as the unfinished person I am - engaged in the messiness of becoming a reciprocal giver. And so I journeyed another transformative year in September 2021 with a long cherished Community we call Mystics Anonymous. My heart's desire emerged front and center as I was surprisingly given assuredness in the midst of unknowing; enough hope from the midst of imperfections. And as though to further mark the time, I was being readied for a delicious discovery of an article subtitled “Theology for an Unfinished Universe”, encountered by chance the following June after closing the year for summer break.
So, what happened this time as I stood inside my vulnerability again as an earthling in the making? The Universe set off a constant stream of chatter – synchronicities and sweet nothings that wrapped my loving family and communities. I dreamed again of the divine feminine; my husband dreamed symbols of my ordination, soon to come at our annual meeting and retreat in Fort Meyers. I would become a deacon in July, a priest in October of 2022. After decades of moving and being deacon and unofficially sanctioned priest in several communities, I would take on the new identity as a formally ordained woman, like my sister deacons and priests in the women's priest movement.
On the way home after the conference in Florida, I passed by an airport coffee shop with the unlikely name “Chalice Cafe.” The connecting flight was on time for the first time in a month. Now that's new! And the most visceral sign of affirmation was in our friendly shuttle driver. She announced her name - “Nova, “ she said. “It means new.”
My heart's desire for 2022-2023 is to see what's new and to engage in it.
Elaine Pfaff is a spiritual director. She lives with her husband of 54 years in North Carolina near two adult children and 6 grandchildren. Her ministry has involved home church liturgies, various retreat design and facilitation. A member of Free Spirit Inclusive Catholic Community and Sophia Inclusive Community. She is active in social justice.
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