Holiest of Holy
On a sunny, peaceful morning, I awoke about 6:30, and turned on the TV news, expecting a mundane weather report. Stunned, and with a paralyzing sense of doom clutching my heart, I could scarce believe what I was seeing as sirens shrieked, pillars of smoke and fire arose, and the panic-stricken fled first from the World Trade Center Towers, and then from the Pentagon. As the hours went on, with one horrific image following another, I finally threw a blanket over the television. I wanted to know what was happening, but could not bear to see.
Mid-morning, when we were still uncertain exactly what had happened, I went to my altar, to pray the Great Litany, and the Prayers for the Dying; I chanted the Om Jesu Christi, Miserere nobis; I sat in silence, before the reserved Sacrament, and enveloped by the presence of Christ. I let the tears flow. Then, I attempted to draw what could not be put into any form, any color, any words other than those of Lady Julian, “All shall be well; all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well.”
Now, I saw the Cross of Sorrows enter the Mosque—enter the Holiest of Holy, enter the Light of God that knows no name, no creed, no boundary. All is One. There is no Path, there are no Steps. There are no more tears to be shed in sorrow; no more weary, stumbling feet carrying burdens of bloodshed and hatred. All is One.
Susan Creighton+
I had never accessed this entry, Susan. It is so beautiful. Yes, there is still hope, although the very things I feared on Sept. 11, 2001 have come to pass. I fell to the ground in front of the television set weeping and thought, Now those bastards have their excuse! Little GW had his excuse to get out his toy soldiers and play a man’s game – so men like to think. Cynic? I guess I was and am even more now, yet I still believe that Julian’s dictum is one of the world’s great truths, and try to cling to that.