Bethany House as Chrysalis by Trustee Katie Rimer

“Suspended upside down in the heart of the question, we touch the sacred spaces of real becoming.”  -Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits

I discovered Sue Monk Kidd’s memoir in the mid-1990s while working on Capitol Hill. The contrast between my shiny job in the U.S. House of Representatives and the year I had just spent working with impoverished families in Bogota, Colombia, had me spiritually disoriented.  Kidd’s meditation about passionate waiting on God during seasons of not knowing shaped the posture of my heart.   The idea of active waiting - not passive - forged my capacity to sit with holy questions and sense that God was at work.  Kidd taught me that just as a chrysalis contains the transformation of a butterfly, so too my heart can bring forth new life, with the right intention, the right action, and God’s grace.   

I have returned to this metaphor of the chrysalis and the butterfly during this season of transition at Bethany House of Prayer. In conversations with the Sisters of St. Anne, the Colleagues and the Board of Trustees, I have watched us listen deeply to each other, clarify roles, reaffirm our covenants, and shore up the ‘container’ of Bethany House of Prayer.  Together we have renewed and deepened our capacity to be a place of refuge for those who come to Bethany House to rekindle their connection to God.  We have trusted God’s good work deep in the spirit of this place as we prepare to call a new Executive Director.   

Already new life presses forward:  in the hiring of Alice Killian as Office Administrator and Retreat House Manager, in the Colleague leadership provided by Christi Humphrey, Kimberly Green, and Kathleen Hirsch, in the abiding generosity of the Sisters, in the wise stewardship by the Board, in the careful, fertile work of the Search Committee.  The Colleagues are gathering for an in-person retreat in November and will welcome the larger community during Advent. Retreat groups continue to access our beautiful spaces. The Transition Committee meets faithfully each week, and the ongoing Contemplative Prayer, Worship, Spiritual Direction, Writing and Hospitality ministries nurture the souls of those who attend. 

Together we have waited passionately on God in prayer and action so that others who come to Bethany House can do the same, as they always have, confident that the ‘chrysalis’ of Bethany House of Prayer can hold them.   Thank you for participating in this holy work, for trusting the process and for believing in the promise of new wings.

Kidd, Sue Monk. 1990. When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

September, 2024

Picture: Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

Let All Guests Who Arrive Be Received Like Christ
The Rule of St. Benedict

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

This September Bethany House is experiencing a time of farewelling and welcoming. Cathy Venkatesh, Bethany’s intrepid Office Administrator, has completed her long and faithful tenure here. And as this month unfolds, Lucy Roosevelt, who has served as Bethany’s bookkeeper almost since its inception, is also bringing to a close her many years of devoted service. Both of them have rendered invaluable service to Bethany House. Their work has been not only practical, but also spiritual. Both have offered a spirit of welcome to all who come here, embodying the signature hospitality that is one of the central charisms of Bethany House. We bid them both farewell and Godspeed, with deep gratitude for who they are and for all that they have added to the life of this community.

But this is also a time of arriving and welcome. Just after Labor Day, Alice Killian began her work as Bethany’s new Office Administrator-Retreat House Manager. Alice is receiving training this month from both Cathy and Lucy, as the duties that Cathy and Lucy previously covered have been folded into Alice’s position. Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Alice, and grant her patient understanding as she learns the ropes here. For now, Alice's schedule of work at Bethany House will be on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

Alice (pictured above) is a graduate of Harvard, lives in Harvard Square and is the Junior Warden at St James’s Episcopal Church in Porter Square, where she also runs the church school. By her own account, Alice is very outgoing and loves people and all other animals. She also does a lot of other volunteer work, as well as working as a caregiver. Alice says: "My ambition is to move a bit further Mary-ward along the Martha-Mary spectrum, but so far the needle hasn’t budged."

In addition to welcoming Alice, I invite you into the daily practice of opening yourself – heart, mind, and soul – to become more and more a guest house, as Rumi put it in the poem above. By opening yourself to be a guest house, your spirit becomes more thoroughly a part of Bethany House’s ministry of welcome to all who come here. In addition, the contemplative practice of welcoming whatever the Spirit sends also helps prepare you for the next big welcome that Bethany anticipates, as the search for Bethany’s new Executive Director continues.

This is also my last newsletter to you as I conclude on September 24 my time as Bethany’s Transition Director. It has been a joy and a privilege to be among you these past six months. This is a special place, vital to both the church and the wider world. Thank you for being who you are and for the gifts you offer through this place that make it a place of nurture and growth for so many. As St. Benedict counseled, you have extended to me a Christlike welcome, and I am grateful. May that spirit of welcome continue to animate all that Bethany does.

Blessings and peace,

Bill Rich

Transition Director