SACRED SITES

The Sister Chapel

The women gather on the hill - board members, friends and the Associates of Cedar Hill Enrichment Center. For weeks now we've been hearing about an anonymous donor who has given money to Cedar Hill to build a chapel in the woods. The building is complete. The day has come to dedicate this sacred place. It's twilight time. We start down the hill in silence, two by two. As we approach the structure, banked with flowers, it greets us. Can an architectural design express welcome? Can color, shape, position feel so like a smile? It stands before us - a graceful wooden gazebo, soft warm color, with six sides. The roof is like an inverted spinning top - no, better yet, like the roof of a grand carousel. It's hard to believe the structure is brand new. Like the stone of labyrinth we pass on the way down the hill, it looks as if it's been here for centuries. Perhaps it has been - only now choosing to make itself visible.

Once inside, we feel ourselves embraced the the gracious circular space...

an Amish design, made by hand and installed that very day, complete with a curved bench that allows us to sit in circle, presenting ourselves to one another face to face. (It makes me wonder who decided churches should have pews and pulpits. Surely no one who wanted to know and be known.)

On the small circular table in the center of the space are statues of holy women from all over the world, and on the table is a polished cotton cloth of red and gold, embossed with silvery spider webs. As we prepare to pray, a hush descends. Our only light comes from a candle in a carved ebony holder sent from Africa by a Dominican sister, formerly president of the Cedar Hill Board, now ministering to AIDS victims in South Africa. It is right that the women of the world should be represented in this Sister Chapel, here in this circle on this holy night.

The date is August 15th. We have chosen this date to coincide with the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. For our prayer service, Board member Mary Kingsley offers us one of her own compositions based on the Catholic rosary: Prayers and Seven Contemplations of the Sacred Mother. This is the first time these prayers have been prayed publicly. We are startled and delighted at how well they fit.

As we say these beautiful words..."Sacred Mother, you are all around us...Heaven and Earth are one in you..." and share the silence of the woods, we feel Our Mother Herself with us, blessing this place, confirming our work, assuring us of Her ongoing care, urging us to leave this place renewed, to go forth to offer this broken world new ways to live together, new ways to know their God and one another.

Saint Francis, the gentle saint of the 12th Century who demonstrated an all-consuming love of God as revealed in nature. Francis appreciated every creature as a gift of the Divine. Nature and experiencing the Creator in nature are important parts of our lives.

Ganesh Garden

Ganesha, a Hindu God dwells eternally in the womb of the Divine Mother. He is her firstborn, emerging before any of the functioning forces of the universe emerge. He establishes law and order out of chaos. Although the firstborn, his birthing is never completed, he is ever being born, thus he brings the gifts
of New Beginnings. A reverent Hindu goes to Ganesha before beginning anything. They begin each day and each activity with Ganesha. Rays of light emanate from Ganesha enabling us to comprehend our deeply rooted impressions and discover how to obtain freedom from the binding forces of our mind.

Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles.

Guardian Angel

The scriptures, old and new, tell us stories about the presence of angels in our lives here on earth. Many cultures and societies believe that those in spirit are all around us. We pause here to remember those who have gone before us, especially those who have helped to influence who we have become.

 Buddha Garden

Buddha was born Gautama Siddhartha around 2500 years ago. He was born into a wealthy warrior caste and raised in the protected environment of a palace. In his teens he discovered that old age and illness are a natural part of life and realized that his present life of luxury could not protect him from the
frailties of the human. One day he came across an aesthetic merchant who introduced him to contemplation and fasting. After some time with the community of mendicant aesthetics, Buddha discovered that contemplation is produced when the mind, self possessed, is at rest. And through contemplation that supremely calm, undecaying state is eventually gained which is so difficult to attain.

The Buddha’s superior powers of intellect and yogic control enabled him to overcome the temptations of illusion and evil when tempted by the evil one.

Finally, at age 35, on the night of a full moon, he attained enlightenment. As he was alone with no one to witness this momentous event, he called the earth itself to be his witness by touching the ground with his right hand. At the age of 80, after 45 years of teaching, the Buddha entered into a deep trance and died peacefully.

Medicine Wheel

As we walk along the path of life we begin to recognize certain qualities from the directions that help us refine and clarify our consciousness. From the North we see the purity of clear mind; the Buffalo Maiden and her wisdom, her offering of good relations comes to all of us. The North clearly mirrors the wisdom of things as they are. As we move around the Medicine Wheel, in the East the sun arise, even from the empty space of dark night the sun arise, illuminating the beauty and the opportunity of life. In the South sprout the seeds of regeneration. In the South we understand what it is to plant seeds of good cause, to make clear and powerful relationships. And in the West we learn from the Dancing Bear how we may cast our doubt and fear, that we may truly be a friend for all our relatives.

 

Copies of Prayers and Seven Contemplations of the Sacred Mother (Woven Word Press)
are available from Cedar Hill Enrichment Center.
For more information please call
770.887.0051
or
info@cedarhillenrichment.org