Good Shepherd Lambs - Episcopal Singles Ministry Membership

To all our Solo Lambs everywhere -

The following is "borrowed" from a submission to our Solo Flight Yahoo! Group by Jan Dunnavant+ Chaplain,
Soloflight 2007 at Kanuga Conference Center, Kanuga NC. It is a great reminder to us to be aware of who our companions are, especially when we are "seeking someone special", when we already have Someone Special to be our constant companion- GOD. I hope you find it as uplifting as I do.
I invite you to consider who your companions are on the Way and what has that meant to your spiritual life in Christ?

Betty Van Volkenburg, SAM's Lambs 'volunteer shepherdess'

Companions on the Way

by Jan Dunnavant

The word "companion" comes from two Latin words:

com, meaning "with," and panis, meaning "bread." Companions nourish our heart, mind, soul, and body. Perhaps some of the most touching stories of scripture are about companionship:

Abraham and Sarah, Ruth and Naomi, Paul and his myriad of traveling companions, the Last Supper, the sharing of the loaves and the fishes, and Jesus breaking bread with his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

With the stories of Jesus, each incident of companionship revealed more about his mercy, love wisdom, suffering and hope. When Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Olives, he craved the companionship of the Apostles. They let him down. But God sent the Holy Spirit to inflame the hearts of the Apostles, and they become faithful companions to Jesus and to one another.

Throughout history, many faithful companions have followed Jesus and the Apostles. These saints and mystics have also taken the journey from conversion, through suffering, to resurrection. Just as they were inspired by holy people who went before them, perhaps you have had companions as you have made your spiritual pilgrimage.

A very close and regular companion, in my desire to draw closer to Christ, has been has been Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. I first encountered him in his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain and when I made my first visit in October, 1974 to Gethsemane Monastery in Trappist, Kentucky. To this day, when I feel lost or disconnected, I can turn back to the powerful and moving reflections of his life journey and somehow find my path once again.

Merton saw himself as a pilgrim seeking God beyond the boundaries of the self and of social convention. The more he experienced the spiritual journey, the more he realized that he would always be on the road toward the divine mystery. I have found great comfort, strength and guidance for my own in his writings.

Perhaps you know his prayer:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
And the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thoughts in Solitude, Thomas Merton.