“We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.”
~John O’Donohue, To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Invocations and Blessings
I love where we live. I love our home, and the mountain that watches over us. I love the pine forests that surround us, and the wide sky overhead.
However.
I’ve decided that there is just one teeny-tiny thing missing; an ancient church with an ancient bell that rings like clockwork, every morning at 8:00, and every evening at 6:00. Speaking of clocks, it also rings out the hour, every hour, on the hour, all around the clock. For the past week in the tiny ancient village of Lindum, Denmark, the ancient bell in the ancient church, next to the old home in which we are staying, has done just that.
When it rings at 8:00 in the morning, it is as if to say remember, it is a new day, a holy day. What will you do with this day that has been given to you?
When it rings out the hour, every hour, on the hour, it is as if to say remember, it is a new hour, a holy hour. What will you do with this hour that has been given to you?
When it rings at 6:00 in the evening, it is as if to say remember, it is the end of another day, a holy day. What did you do with this day that was given to you?
It is so easy to forget the holiness of time as it marches on, day after day.
And if time is not holy, then what is? For it is within our hours that we live out our lives.
And if our lives are not holy, then what is? For it is with our lives that we are able to love, help, and heal the world that is within our reach.
And if the world is not holy, then what is? For it is within the world that we live out the one life that we have been given.
And so it goes. Holy lives, spent in holy hours, in the midst of a holy world.
All is holy.
Photo: Tom Pierson