Friday, May 23, 2008

Try Walking the Labyrinth

Speaking of walking meditation, you can walk the labyrinth next Tuesday, May 27th at the Washington National Cathedral from 6:30 to 8:45. The stain glass windows of the Cathedral capture the setting sun beautifully.

Walking the path of a labyrinth is an extraordinary experience and a very unique form of meditation. Words can hardly capture the sensation of shifting perceptions as you twist and turn away and then go back toward where you just came from. You pass or shadow strangers, each off on their own path. You can be alone on one part and then suddenly congested amid twenty. So you step aside wait. Then you are alone again, stepping apart. The movement inward, arriving at the center, can be powerful, like entering a womb. Walking the labryinth becomes a metaphor for life, for the many journeys on which we embark.

The Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage opens at 6:00 pm for centering prayer (also known as meditation). The Center is right off of Resurrection Chapel and if you've never visit, you're in for a treat.

Upstairs in the nave, the Cathedral makes two labyrinths available for this special contemplative practice which is free and open to the public. A harpist will accompany you on your walk. And Compline is said at 8:45.

A special additional offering 7 pm a special program is offered in the Bethlehem Chapel. This month Deryl Davis offers Drama for Your Spirit: Acting Faithfully.

For more information about the program at the Washington National Cathedral, click here. The National Cathedral offers this program on the last Tuesday of every month.

If you don't live in DC, here is a world-wide labyrinth locator. And here's a link for all you might want to know about the types of labyrinths and the history of the practice from classical times through the Middle Ages to our own time.

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