I am fairly certain people who only see the title of this inspirational piece will misunderstand what I plan to do. Typically, we think about shelters in a two-fold way. In the first place shelters are those designated places people can go to in times of danger. Hurricanes and tornadoes will send people to shelters. Often the shelters are schools, maybe the local YMCA or military building. Shelters are designed to put us in safer places than our houses and work places. The second meaning of shelters suggests places of incarceration. It is where we send troubled teens in order to protect the community and the teen himself or herself. In this piece I don’t have either place of shelter in mind.
Instead, I recall the opening line of the Psalm used in the last worship of the day monks have in their Liturgy of the Hours. The monks call this last worship Compline---which means to complete the day. For centuries monks followed the suggestion found in one of the Psalms that they worship and pray seven times a day. And to follow this, they constructed a daily schedule built around seven times the community would gather in prayer.
For example, one of the monasteries I like to visit, Gethsemani Abbey, where the famous Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, the monks appear in the monastic church at 3:15am to begin their day with what is called, Vigils---a watching for the new day to come. Six gatherings for worship later, the monks appear for Compline and, then, head to bed by 8:00pm.
Each of these monastic communal gatherings contains some readings from one of the one-hundred fifty Psalms. In fact, the community works its way through the entire Psalms every two weeks! I have a monk friend who has been in the Gethsemani community over fifty years. Can you imagine how many times he has heard and recited every one of the 150 Psalms! He knows them by heart. And it is safe to say, they have formed his heart. I try to expose myself to this kind of formation, but it certainly is not as serious as my monk friends.
But I do try to follow some of what is called the Liturgy of the Hours. I follow the monks game plan. For each one of the seven gatherings, there is a set group of readings. Every time there are some readings from the Psalms. And so I settle in for a little period of time at Compline. Today’s Compline reading begins with a line from Psalm 91. The Psalm addresses the reader and believer. “You who live in the shelter of the Most High…” Of course, it is from this line we see the title of this inspirational reflection. I am never absolutely sure I am one of those living in the shelter. I want to. I hope to live in the shelter.
It is typical of the writer of Psalms to repeat one line with a similar line. This is true when we look at the rest of Psalm 91:1. “…who abide in the shadow of the Almighty…” We put these two phrases together by seeing living in the shelter is the same as abiding in the shadow. And we recognize the Psalmist has identified God with two different terms: Most High and Almighty. Of course, we recognize it is not possible to define in precise terms who or what God is. So the Psalmist chooses two significant ways to attempt to articulate the impossible description of God. Nevertheless, God is the Most High and the Almighty.
If we come to experience and know this God, then we are able to come into the shelter of that Holy One. Like the earlier shelters described here, to come into the shelter of God is to be brought into divine protection and offered ultimate safety. In this shelter we cannot be unduly hurt. It does not guarantee there will be no pain or suffering, but there is assurance we will be ok.
I like the promise offered a little later in that same Psalm. We are assured, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (91:11) It is easy to see this is the source for the idea of having a “guardian angel.” Those of us who are smart, educated and sophisticated can scoff at this idea. I can tell you if I have a guardian angel, I never saw it! It is easy to make fun of this kind of idea. It sounds more like what my granddaughter might think about. After all, she has imaginary friends!
I would like to think I have a guardian angel. In fact, the way I look at it, I might have more than one. I wonder if this idea does not apply to our spiritual friends? I suspect it might also apply to the spiritual community to which so many belong. No sane person thinks the spiritual journey is for loners. No one should travel the spiritual path without friends and community. That would be stupid and childish and, of course, without any kind of angel.
I come to live in the shelter of God by my faith and with my faith expressed in action. I try to abide in the shadow of God’s Presence. I trust that God’s Presence goes with me throughout my days and that Presence can rightly be called my angel. The angel desires me to be loving, to put others before myself and all those things the Gospel encourages. The word angel means “messenger.”
If I can go with my angel, then I can be good news in the world, too. I can live a sheltered life and help others find protection and safety.
Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber. I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s. It was already a famous book by then. I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it. It has been a while since I looked at the book. Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks? I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece. I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation. I wish more people read him and took him seriously. ...
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