Meditation for Thursday, March 31, 2011

Psalm 95: 6-11
Jeremiah 7: 23-28
Luke 11: 14-23

During the lulls in the Sunday services, I often find myself looking towards the ceiling. It is a combination of the trained habit of looking towards the heavens during times of spiritual reflection and continued wonderment for our congregation’s spectacular physical structure of worship. I tend to look at the ceiling above the altar where the dark wood beams fill the portion of the cathedral ceiling where the cruciform intersects. The beams create a grid of nine by nine that I count to make sure that my memory serves me right and always wonder why nine by nine and not an even number.

I think about how many eyes have looked up towards the heavens and noticed the same thing that I see and the generations of Clevelanders who have worshiped in this same space. I think about the immense amount of people power it took to construct the Cathedral over a century ago and how different the makeup of the congregation is today compared with the original congregation that celebrated mass at the turn of the twentieth century.

They were partaking in the same ritual we partake, in the same building, praying to the same God, and reflecting on passages from the same Book we turn to – the times were the only difference. Because of the difference in time, the reflections had to be different because of the ever-changing world context.

However, as we navigate this ever-changing landscape, we don’t do it alone.

We have a community of believers at Trinity and our friends and families to turn to. There is comfort found in knowing that we don’t make this journey alone and are strengthened when we strengthen our relationship with God and find fellowship in our congregation steeped in history.

Graham Vesey