Peeling Off the Layers

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billymole
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:34 pm

Peeling Off the Layers

Postby billymole » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:50 am

I love the rapprochement that takes place within the group at Chartres, even over as short a time as a week, or maybe even because of it. Quite soon, off come the layers that keep a distance between us, and in the relaxing of frontiers we begin to appreciate one another's inner loveliness of nature, and by it to recognise fellow pilgrims upon the road. On the last morning in the garden we were asked which was more important, people or place. My first response was, most definitely, place. But on reflection I came to see that they were equally important especially at a place of resonance such as Chartres Cathedral, which is the focus of a continuous aspirational coming together of humans over hundreds of generations. One day I watched a pigeon grappling with a rook that was trying to enter a tiny hole in the wall of the cathedral, within which the pigeon had built her nest. You see this struggle in nature everywhere; creatures just do what they instinctively do, in the interests of looking after number one. It was quite a contrast: below, the pigeon and the rook intent upon their pagan struggle; above, the upward-soaring manifestation of human inspiration prompted by thoughts and feelings of community and communion, greater than individual interests. Chartres is not a stern or gloomy place, it is a human place, a very peaceful place for those who yield to it.

londonoak
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:38 pm
Group: Colet House Tuesday lunchtime

Re: Peeling Off the Layers

Postby londonoak » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:47 am

I read this weekend in the FT magazine the experiences of an urbane US Muslim undertaking the Haj. Not particularly religious, but keen to support his parents and brother. His descriptions echoed for me this peeling off the layers that we had at Chartres. Any pilgrimage will have this I think, and he concludes that the effect is to return to life more tolerant. Your own self dwells in the hearts of all.


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