Ritual

I learned a long time ago that ritual is a delicate portal to the spiritual. In my teens, I noticed daily that a priest in the seminary chapel, Father Martin, would go through the ritualized motions and language of the mass in around ten minutes. This is a ritual that typically takes around thirty or more minutes. I learned then that ritual could become rote. And that has been a foundational experience for me. I resolved not to follow that practice.

I’ve not always been successful in following my resolve. Ritual has been an important part of my life. I have often said that I like ritual. The ritual I like has been a signifiant and repetitious portal to the spiritual. I have also learned that ritual can lose its value when my attention strays, when it is not focused on the meaning of what I am doing. Ritual can become something like cultural custom, even in the seclusion of my bedroom.

Every morning, I light a candle, I burn incense, and I invite my singing bowl. This is a prelude, a portal to my entering into mindful movements and a period of mindful sitting. The candle, the incense, the bell are all important factors that open my heart/mind into a ritual space, a spiritual space. Some days it is very effective in opening that portal. Some days my attention wanders, and the ritual becomes rote and less effective. Still I go through the motions every morning.

I am wary of the danger that I may at some point be going through the actions and no longer be entering into their true value. I may even cling to the ritual, unwilling to let go of something very familiar but without its savor. That clinging could be a clear sign to me that I have lost the value of the ritual.

I am attentive to my experience in the seminary chapel, and I am habitually alert to the danger of ritual becoming rote. For me, the whole value of ritual is not just familirity and ease. Ritual is of value to me beause it opens me into a spirit realm that is not always so present to me. The candle, the incense, the bell are sacred objects for me, but only if I make them so. Only if I make them so each time.

I wholeheartedly embrace ritual. And I want it to be an embrace of awareness.