Happy Sunday!
I can now place the title of reverend before my name after having been ordained an interfaith/interspiritual minister on June 4th. That first week of June spent with my classmates and instructors was one of the most uplifting, joyful, and blessed times of my life.
That week of in-person coming together with my seminary class began with my study group arriving at my house where we spent a day together before heading off to the retreat center to join our class. We put together an impromptu ceremony of gratitude for each other with each of us having brought gifts to share with each individual in the group.
I was given by one friend, a pretty little jewelry gift box to open. As I opened the hinged box, my gaze landed on a pearl connected to a gold necklace. I immediately felt a connection to the necklace like it was speaking to me at the same time that my friend was describing how she had chose it as my gift. She told me that she felt it spoke to her of being right for me, saying something like it held a simple grace.
I’m sorry that I don’t recall her exact words as the pearl was sending me messages at the same time, so I was distracted. I was being given images of the oyster shell that held the pearl with it forming in the salty brine, tucked in against the fleshy oyster.
During that Week.
At our retreat I wore the pearl necklace. It kept bringing me the image of the pearl in the oyster shell. It was growing and forming into a stronger, brighter, and more rounded form. I recognized the effort of the oyster in the shell with me, the pearl. It rubbed against me, making me more vibrant. I understood the oyster to be the Holy Spirit.
On Tuesday evening we had our vow taking ceremony. We shared prayers with each other and then made our vows to God in the presence of our community. As this very holy and beautiful ceremony ended, the pearl spoke to me again. I received the image of the pearl leaving the shell, separated, outside of it, and heard the message, ‘There is no going back in’.
I received the message feeling joy and gratitude for the clear communication from HS but also with some understanding that it was firm guidance to keep moving forward and not return to hiding. As I look back on this, it was an appropriate message in that moment as I had just spoken out-loud my vow that I will answer ‘yes’ to God. I said yes, so there is no more hiding by allowing fear to pause my expressing Love into this world.
At the end of the ceremony, we celebrated by hugging each other. When I hugged my dean, he asked me how I felt. I said that I felt like a pearl, and he let out a big laugh. I wondered if he could possibly understand what I meant–with all of HS’s influences that week, he probably did. Anyway, the next morning I shared this story with my class when we were asked to share what our experiences were during the vow ceremony, so everyone came to know that I felt like a pearl.
In gratitude,
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for continually working on me. I have been polished and released into the world. Now it is time for me to shine for others to receive the light. So be it.