Secret Rooms
Dear Friends,
As we move through Holy Week into the threshold of Easter, I am thinking about a visit I had with an old friend one Lenten day two years ago, right before COVID-19 descended upon us. We had planned to take a walk around the University of Richmond, but right in the middle, it began to rain. So, we sheltered in a covered patio, taking a more stationary pilgrimage than we had intended, sharing instead some of the terrain we had each crossed since our last visit. In the time that had passed between that visit and this one, we both had lost marriages and buried loved ones, all before their time.
As we talked and the rain drenched the gorgeous spring landscape around us, that covered patio became for me what Phil Cousineau calls a secret room. In his book The Art of Pilgrimage, Cousineau writes that in every sacred journey, there is a hidden space we must find, a place along the path where we will begin to understand the deep mystery of our pilgrimage. He writes,
“Everywhere you go, there is a secret room. To discover it, you must knock on walls, as the detective does in mystery houses, and listen for the echo that portends the secret passage. You must pull books off shelves to see if the library shelf swings open to reveal the hidden room.
I’ll say it again: Everywhere has a secret room. You must find your own, in a small chapel, a tiny café, a quiet park, the home of a new friend, the pew where the morning light strikes the rose window just so.
As a pilgrim you must find it or you will never understand the hidden reasons why you really left home.” *
Our Lenten pilgrimage comes to a close during a time in which the landscape of our world has felt more like a wilderness than ever before. Has there been a secret room, a space that prompted a moment of insight or inspiration, of wisdom or connection or even delight? Have you had an experience that gave you a window onto your path and helped you see it differently? How did that secret room help you understand why you set out on your journey in the first place? What gift did it offer for the road ahead?
As you ponder these questions, I hope you will consider joining us in our Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, as we enter into the secret rooms that stirred and challenged Jesus and his disciples, leading them into the mystery and truth of his journey to the cross and beyond.
Deep peace to you as Easter draws near.
Amelie+
*Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgrimage (San Francisco: Conari Press, 1998), 126.
