My spiritual mentor—
former nun, poet, Ph.D.,
delver in ancient myths,
student of Jung’s work,
all her life legally-blind—
when speaking of God
would often use the name
“Holy One.”
Not God, not Creator, not Father
or anything I’d ever heard,
but “Holy One.”
And each time
I heard her say “Holy One,”
I felt my own God-wonderings
stretching, expanding,
slipping out of ancient images,
out of shrink-wrapped ideas,
out of constricting stereotypes,
to breathe and become.
One recent morning,
sitting on the balcony in a
contemplative frame of mind,
seeking to be present for a time…
I found myself thinking, again,
of the way my mentor
spoke of the sacred Presence as:
“Holy One.”
And I began to say
this name to myself
as an anchor in the Deep…
every time I felt myself
drifting away, not-present,
I brought myself back
to the present moment
by saying God’s name,
“Holy One.”
And as I did,
the intonation began
to gradually change.
I found myself
hearing/thinking/saying
not “Holy One”
but HolyONE, HolyONE, HolyONE.
My God-wonderings were again
stretching, expanding,
no longer willing to be
some Sacred Other-Than
but instead the Holy Presence
present in all things,
in every blade of grass,
every bird and tree,
every cloud and creature,
every catastrophe and crisis,
every person, every me.
There is only one everything
and everything is HolyOne.
Everything is connected.
Everything is Holy.
Everything is One.
Ann Keiffer
September, 2023
Image: Found on Pinterest, An Infinity Mirror Installation by Sarah Meyohas
