Sunday, October 3, 2010

A TRIP TO THE MONASTERY


Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, MA


 Here are some thoughts I jotted down while sitting on the plane awaiting take off at O'Hare airport in Chicago one cold and bleak morning several years ago.

A Trip To The Monastery
Joseph Bragg
"Waiting for the plane to take off from O'Hare airport I see a sky completely covered with dark, thick and ominous clouds - the kind that make you feel depressed and warn of an approaching snow storm.  

Looking out the window of the plane I see the airport workers loading luggage into the belly of the plane.  By the way they are bundled up, blowing smoke when they talk and breathe, and having their hair whipped about by the wind I can tell it is a cold and blustery day.

Here on earth the only thing apparent now is a cold and dreary day where it seems the sun's bright warmth and joy have ceased to exist.  

Then the plane takes off.  In a few seconds we enter the clouds where there is only darkness.  Everything is black.  A few seconds later we break through the clouds.  Below is an unbelievable and endless sea of cotton.  All the black clouds had tops of pure white, invisible from the earth.  Above us is an endless sea of cloudless blue where the sun is shining brightly and flooding me with warmth through the window.  If we had not taken flight, none of this would have existed for me. The only reality would have been the gloomy coldness of a dreary day in Chicago.   

I thought how like life this is.  Often we can't see anything but the dark and dreary clouds of life.  It feels like the beauty, joy, warmth, and hope of the sun have ceased to exist.  But this is only because we are on earth and are of the earth.  If we can ascend to heaven through faith we will know that above the foreboding clouds the blue sky, and light, and warmth of the sun never cease and it is only a matter of time until the clouds will part and disappear and the dark coldness will turn to warmth, and light, and joy again.  

This is one reason I go to the monastery.  Daily life has a way of perverting my reality.  I start thinking that what I see here everyday - life with its endless struggle to know, and do, and be, and experience, and get, and possess, and horde, and enjoy is the reality, and the Kingdom of God is the distant and unreal illusion.  At the monastery I am able to see again that what seems to be reality in this life is really like the black storm clouds.  This is the illusion that will soon disappear as vapor.  And the Kingdom of God is the reality of the always existing and endless blue sky.  At the monastery I break through the clouds and see what is real once again."

Glory Be To God For All Things!