A sacred illness is one that educates us and alters us from the inside out, provides experiences and therefore knowledge that we could not possibly achieve in any other way.–Deena Metzger
I like the quote because it resonates with my experiences. In the past two years I’ve had two sacred illnesses. At the time I would have called them anything but sacred, but in retrospect each has left me wiser and drawn closer to the mystical presence of Christ. Each has formed me more completely as a Franciscan and given a new dimension to my existence. In neither case would I have deliberately chosen to experience either. They were just too terrible to contemplate and yet each has blessed me beyond measure. These dark nights have redeemed and re-purposed my life and have drawn me closer to the greater power that anchors my existence. Each is a sacred wound. They are my stigmata.
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Thanks,Don, for sharing the grace of your Stigmata.
Thank you for reading and responding. Only through the prism of your comments am I better able to see myself. I need the community of readers to help me to see if I’m taking myself and life too seriously. I worried that calling these a wounds a stigmata was too much. I don’t want to be disrespectful of St. Francis.