McGrath Institute Blog

A few days after last year’s Feast of the Visitation, I started working on this poem. I had recently come across a villanelle (a form of poetry that’s a bit like a puzzle, definitely structured but not too strict) and wanted to try writing one myself. I looked back at it today and was surprised how much I liked it—enough to share it, I guess.

Taizé (pronounced: tay-zay) is a prayerful form of music known for its simple, yet rich and meditative character. Taizé music often takes the structure of an ostinato (a simple melody that repeats over and over) and is meant to serve as a kind of musical centering prayer. Because Taizé music itself is intentionally simple, it provides a great way to move our prayer from the head to the heart. 

Contrary to popular belief, I think it is incredibly exciting to visit nursing homes. Sure, there are times when you might want to nod off like literally every other person in the room, but there are also times when I visit and my friends Helen and John are both talking to me at once, someone’s yelling because their toe got run over by a wheelchair, the nurses are running around with sweaters and glasses of water, and the Hallmark channel is playing so loudly in the background that the elderly preacher in the corner doesn’t even need his hearing aid. Especially when you’re on a college campus and all the people you live with are between the ages of 17 and 23, even just seeing an old person is exciting.

As a perfectionist, I often seek out God in the wrong places; I pursue perfection instead of holiness. I await his revelation in the flawless, impeccable, perfect moments. But my penchant for the ideal means that I often keep God sequestered to the sacred precincts of some faraway sanctuary instead of inviting him into the moments of my life when I most need him: the less-than-perfect moments. Recently, I learned a very messy lesson about the grace of God in the chaos of life when I accidentally unleashed a deluge of foam into the hallways of the Catholic high school where I teach.

Praying with a labyrinth is a form of walking meditation, a physical expression of the interior journey towards Christ that characterizes all Christian meditation. Like a pilgrimage, forms of walking meditation evoke our earthly journey towards heaven while simultaneously giving us time and space to listen and respond to the Lord.