Weaving Poems: The Contemplative Arts at Bethany House

This past summer as I walked in my garden, I noticed a massive spider’s web strung between a hosta and a large hydrangea. At its center was the largest spider I’d ever seen, a bright yellow blaze on her back. The web she had laboriously spun resembled a page from a 9th century illuminated manuscript, dramatic with italic dashes in purest white.

A quick consult of my insect guide revealed a marvelous find: she was an Argiope aurantia, known in common parlance as a Writer’s Spider!

As a poet, and facilitator of the Bethany House of Prayer Contemplative Writing Group, you can imagine my delight. Nature’s muse had been lying in plain sight, just waiting for me to see her – as the Holy Spirit so often does. I dashed back outside with pen and notebook, to study the magnificent gossamer of dreams right at my back door.

I joined the Colleagues group at Bethany House of Prayer more than 20 years ago drawn to the value placed on poetry and art as cherished pillars of our identity, and woven into our founding charism. Anchored in the exquisite stained glass, stone and choir stalls of the century-old chapel that visitors see when they arrive for a retreat or Evening Eucharist, we have consistently created for all who come to us beautiful programs rich with poems, reflections and artwork. When COVID forced us online, we continued to emphasize nourishing contemplative art digitally, during our Evening Contemplative Practice, Evening Eucharist and Contemplative Prayer programs.

Many at Bethany House – Colleagues, members of the Board, Sisters -- are makers of art. We understand art as a sacred practice, whether we write poems, paint, take photographs, dance or make collages. Art-making requires the attentiveness, receptivity, and practice that dwell at the heart of all holy work. When we open ourselves to the tender lessons of ordinary life-- spiders, fallow winter fields, a folk song, the words of others, and of course, Scripture -- we grow beyond our smaller selves into beings with depth and range, able to engage creatively and constructively with the life around us.

Mary Oliver, as always, expresses this outflow of love and longing in a stanza of her poem, “On Thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate:”

Every morning I want to kneel down on the golden
cloth of the sand and say
some kind of musical thanks for
the world that is happening again – another day –
from the shawl of wind coming out of the
     west to the firm green
flesh of the melon lately sliced open and
     eaten, its chill and ample body
flavored with mercy. I want
to be worthy of – what? Glory? Yes, unimaginable glory.
O Lord of melons, of mercy, though I am 
not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing toward you.

.

Thirst

Two on-going offerings at Bethany House currently nurture the creative life: the Contemplative Writing Group, and the writing crawls offered by Jim Meyer in the chapel. Kimberly Green, another poet and affiliate, offers occasional Saturday workshops, and our upcoming Advent retreat will provide opportunity for creative activities.
As we anticipate an exciting new chapter in our life with the appointment of a new Executive Director, we hope to expand our creative programs to include art festivals, journal writing groups and creative workshops.

We invite your participation, your voices, and your prayers, as we nourish the seeds of contemplative creativity here at Bethany House of Prayer. Meanwhile, we invite you to converse with the spiders and winter pods in your gardens, read poetry, and gather images that speak to your heart. Let us hear from you!

Kathleen Hirsch
www.kathleenhirsch.com

(Note: The Writing Crawls will take a pause in December to make room for our Advent Retreat day. They will pick up again in January.)