Meet failings with grace: Spiritual practices and reflection from Rev. Dr. Lil Smith
You are dust…and to dust you shall return. Qoheleth 3:20
As I recall, the imposition of ashes returned to my Presbyterian church arena when I was an adult. As a child, I remember my Catholic friends coming to school with black smudges on their foreheads. That smudge of darkness marked Ash Wednesday for me. Dark. My not-so-fond memories of death and bleak I remembered it as their “dark ashes day.” I wonder how it would have been different if I understood it as a “grace day.”
As Ash Wednesday has re-emerged in regular practice for the Protestant liturgical year, I find it a refreshing way to enter into the Lenten season. Of course we begin with dust! Because life is messy.
“Because we tend to set aside imperfect things to deal with them at a later time. Because death and dying have become outcomes of our human inability to save life instead of being a grace of life. Yes, a grace of life.”
We must begin with the invitation to see dust as a grace of life. I believe this to be the intention to the practice.
What is dust for you? Dust can be as heavy as death, darkness, shadow, addiction or failure. Dust can be circumstance as difficult relationships, stuckness, discontent in a job or volunteer space.
Dust is all around us. Whatever the dust may be, it is messy, and there is grace in it. To see the grace, we have to get our fingers in the dust and move it around.
Spiritual Practice Part One:
Set the Space:
As you enter into this prayer space, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance. If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do. Keep wrestling. God is faithful to your journey. Love and hope will emerge. Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.
Find a place in your home or in nature where you are free from distraction.
Let your breath be connected with the Breath of God.
Invite into your awareness one are of dust in your life. If there is more than one, sit with them until one emerges as the dust you will sit with today. If you wish you can come back to the practice with others.
Welcome the dust that has captured your attention.
Does the dust have a name?
Describe the dust. (color, texture, smell, etc.)
What does the dust represent for you today?
Be present to the dust, invite it to speak.
Listen to the dust as if you are listening to a hurting child.
Notice God is listening with you and gazing upon you and the dust with loving kindness.
Ask God to reveal grace in the dust.
What new thing is God inviting you to see today?
What is your work to do, if any?
Embrace the discovery.
Give thanks to God noticing any freedom that comes with the discovery.
Pause to linger with grace and freedom.
Welcome day of grace.
Spiritual Practice Part Two
Invite into your awareness to an area of dust in the life/lives of your Black brothers and sisters. If there is more than one, sit with them until one emerges as the dust you will sit with today. If you wish you can come back to the practice with others.
Welcome the dust that has captured your attention.
Does the dust have a name?
Describe the dust. (color, texture, smell, etc.)
What does the dust represent for you today?
Be present to the dust, invite it to speak.
Listen to the dust as if you are listening to a hurting child.
Notice God is listening with you and gazing upon you and the dust with loving kindness.
Ask God to reveal grace in the dust.
What new thing is God inviting you to see today?
What is your work to do, if any?
Embrace the discovery.
How do you desire to respond?
Give thanks to God noticing any freedom or call to action that comes with the discovery.
Pause to linger with grace and freedom.
Welcome day of grace.
Voices from the Retreat House community:
Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center, a spiritual director, supervisor and teacher. When Lil was preparing for a discussion at Retreat House on The Accommodation: the politics of race in an American City [Dallas] by Jim Shutze, she ran across this new book by Otis Mills, III: Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times.
The titles of the spiritual practices in this book ignited her heart.
“When I became aware of God’s invitation for me to dive deep with these practices, I decided to use these for a Lenten practice. You are welcome to join me if you wish!”
Lil also recommends you get the book and grab a cup of black coffee. It deepens the experience, she encourages.
Retreat House racial equity statement: As our country's racial unrest collectively continues to surface, Retreat House has taken an active role intending to the deep wounds we collectively and individually carry related to racism. Since 2019, RH has hosted a Conversation on Racism series, facilitated by Rev. Dr. Clay Brantley.
These conversations have allowed participants and leaders to explore questions like: Are there cracks in your views and understandings of racism and how racism affects you? Maybe you're being called to see and speak in a new way around racism? What part of your inner world need attention and care so you might better love yourself, others, the world?
Join us for our next few Conversations on Racism where we will explore and discuss The Accommodation.