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Open Your Heart in Gratitude for Thin Places
Initially I wanted to focus this blog on GRATITUDE as we approach Thanksgiving but this week I read Jan Richardson’s Facebook entry: “And again we are entering this trio of days that I have long treasured: Halloween, All Saints, All Souls, that thin place in the year that acknowledges how close the worlds are, even when they seem piercingly far apart.” Thin spaces always fascinate me; so it is with a heart of gratitude that we open our heart to the surprises of thin spaces. They are the sacred place where God and humanity meet in a mysterious way. Julianne Stanz in her book, Braving the Thin Spaces, tells us: “Thin spaces are wild, messy places where God is at work. Time seems to stand still, there is a discernible sense of sacredness, and the world around us speaks its own story to those who are listening.”
I never thought of this trio of days as thin space but, as I explored it, I sensed the connection. Halloween, contraction of “All Hallow’s Eve” (All Saints Day), has its roots in the Gaelic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Halloween marks the day before the Christian feast of all Saints and initiates what some call the season of Allhallowtide, which lasts three days and concludes with All Souls Day. The Celts believed that the veil between the world of the living and dead were thinnest at this time and so the dead could return and walk among us.
According to Wikipedia (admittedly not the best reference), the trick-or-treating of Halloween traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of “guising’, going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with treats. It goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. In “guising”, children traditionally donned costumes and pretended to be malicious spirits as they went “guising” around the local streets. It was believed that, by disguising themselves, they would blend in with any wandering spirits and remain safe from harm. Clearly disguising as a good spirit would help as well. Initially unique to Scotland and Ireland, the practice of guising has evolved over the years and today is commonly know as trick or treating on Halloween.
The second leg of the trio is All Saints Day. Its origin can be traced to Pope Gregory III’s dedication of a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on November 1st, to all saints, martyrs and confessors. Now, by tradition this celebration of All Saints, really means ALL saints. While throughout the year many canonized saints are celebrated, on this feast of All Saints, we recognize those whose sainthood is known only to God and to those who knew and loved them in this life. Many of our parents and friends certainly are among those blessed messengers of God’s love. Devotion on this day is easy to see as a “thin space”. It is a day when we honor their goodness and “remember” how connected they remain with us. Our hearts speak to them in tender ways, and they surely speak to us. They are among the Communion of Saints who watch over us.
And then there’s All Soul’s Day. Ron Rolheiser tells us when Jesus spoke to the good thief on the cross saying “Today you will be with me in paradise!”, those words are meant for every one of us who dies without having had the time and opportunity to make all the amends and speak all the apologies that we owe to others. Our tradition tells us there is still time after death, on both sides of the thin space, for reconciliation and healing to happen because, inside the communion of saints, we have privileged access to each other, and there we can finally speak all of those words that we couldn’t speak before. We can reach across earth’s divide. (Ron Rolheiser, Communion of Saints, November5, 2006 )
As Christians, this is our belief that the dead are still alive, still themselves and, very importantly, still in a living, conscious and loving relationship with us and with each other. That’s our common concept of heaven and it is wonderfully correct. That’s exactly what Christian faith and Christian dogma, not to mention deep intuitive experience, invite us to. After death we live on…in communion with others who have died before us, in communion with those we left behind on earth, and in communion with the divine itself. That’s the Christian doctrine of the Communion of Saints. (Ron Rolheiser, The Communion of Saints, November 2, 2015).
So, yes indeed, this Trio of Days-- "Halloween, All Saints, All Souls--brings us in touch with a thin place… where we acknowledge how close the worlds are, even when they seem piercingly far apart.”
May you have a heart filled with gratitude for those thin places we encounter throughout our lives and may this be a month filled with gratitude for all the surprises God places before us.
Preview Sheet 2023-2024
PS: Since we cannot accommodate overnight retreatants at the motherhouse, you might consider spending the night before or after the retreat at the hermitage so you can be in a peaceful quiet environment to reflect.
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