Secular Sacraments

My spiritual journey began with my mother. Until I began school, she and I spent many happy, wonderful hours together in our house and yard, she doing the endless amount of housework that was required to run a house in the 1930’s, and me helping her. Well, not necessarily with the housework ... let’s just say that I helped her more in her worship - our worship - and we worshiped joyfully together all day long, every day.

An outsider might have thought that she was familiar with Buddhist or Zen methods of teaching, where the student moves in with the teacher and while no formal classes are conducted, the great lessons of life are mutually “discovered” by student and teacher together in the process of being human beings, while doing human work.

So we found God in everything: ants, rocks, clouds and sky; flowers, of course, and me -even (she claimed) in my older sister - but God’s presence was clearly evident in my mother’s every thought, word and deed. So that’s where my cosmology and metaphysics come from today, from walking alone, out in the garden while the dew is still on the roses, along with my mother who is there singing softly and tenderly by the old rugged cross near the rock of ages; both of us leaning on the everlasting arms with the lower lights burning, rescuing the perishing and then gathering at the river and marching onward to Zion. She (we) sang all those wonderful words of life in many sweet hours of prayer.

And the influence of these hymns were evident in all she did around the house. For example, I remember how she used to sweep the carpets. First she would carefully check the broom, and pull out any dirt or broken straws or anything like that, and then she would clean the carpet with love and respect for the carpet. She would sweep with respect for the broom, with respect even for the dirt and dust. Everything had a place in her life. Dirt was part of living, and you had to collect it with care and then put it back onto a suitable place in the yard. Dirt didn’t belong in the “trash” where it would be hauled out to the dump; no, it “needed” to go back into the yard. Not, of course, where it would be immediately tracked back into the house, but still, back where it belonged; she would find a good place for it, a place where it would “fit in”. So she would carefully carry it back to the yard like it was a privilege.There was a balance to life, and a flow, and a give and a take, and helping to keep things in balance was a task well worthy of respect and honor. Sometimes I could carry the dirt out to the yard in the dust pan myself. What a privilege it really is when you carry everything as if it were being carried to God in prayer.

Years later I would watch Episcopal priests consecrate the bread and wine for communion. I used to watch them intently, trying to remember where I had seen that combination of love, respect, honor and sacredness before - I knew it was a long time ago, buried somewhere deeply in my past. But those actions and attitudes and reverent manners seemed so familiar. Then it dawned on me one Sunday morning: that was the way my mother kept house - that was the way she swept her carpets and made the beds!

I began to wonder if other people could conduct at least part of their daily lives in such a sacred manner? I came to call such actions by a name: Secular Sacraments. Then I started doing trying to do some Secular Sacraments myself and found they were a lot harder to do than they looked like they would be. I came to realize that I would need help! So I went back into my memories again to see what she did; what did she do to help herself?

Of course there was a lot more than just dirt to be swept; there were clothes to be cleaned and ironed, meals were important; and while she was not a gourmet cook she know how to put love and spirit into the food she prepared for her family. More Secular Sacraments. So how did she do all that? Then I recalled that much of her work was done to the sound of hymns. Great, glorious old hymns that reached deep into you, deep into the food, deep into our home. How did she play them? Radio? Phonograph? No, she sang them. Just as she was, without one plea.

But that was back in the 1930’s and 40’s; how can that possibly be of any importance to us today? Most homes don’t have brooms, or irons anymore, and many people really don’t “cook” anymore, they just “heat up”. And if you live in an apartment, and take a dust pan of dirt down in the elevator, you’ll be thought of as weird, and if you pour the dirt out down at the street level, you may be arrested for littering!

So the work that we do has changed over the years, but it is not just what we do, but the way we perform our tasks, whether new or traditional, that makes the difference.

What are the essential elements of Secular Sacraments? First, there is that matter of respect. Respect for your task, your tools and your methods. Respect for your own body and who you are. Then there is the matter of dignity - dignity that you freely give to the universe, and dignity that you understand the universe freely gives back to you. Somewhere, there is the element of Joy. Joy in making real the presence of God in everyday things. And that brings us to the matter of Sacredness. For my mother, that was easy, because she always stood on hallowed ground. What about us in our work? How can we attune ourselves so that we can recognize that the ground we stand on is also sacred and how can we make its presence real to us and others?

I remember a remarkable pitching performance in a World Series when a very young Orel Hershieser put on a remarkable performance He started that year in AA baseball; and wound it up winning three games in the world series. How did he withstand all that pressure? He later said that between innings he sat alone on the bench with his eyes closed and hummed hymns to himself. What did that do? It helped attune him. It helped him focus on glory instead of fear.

Hymns are not the only way. There are thoughts, mental images, other music and places that exist only in your own being. Love, Joy, Peace, Happiness, Beauty, all are part of your own being, and you can seek them and bring them to realization in any place! Not easy! Indeed no! Making ground hallowed is truly work fit for a god. But it is not work that any god can do - it requires both God and man working together.

Here’s one way you can begin: First, you carefully check your broom, while you hum a grand old hymn, and know that when you are finished with the work, your world will be bright and beautiful, and that amazing grace can be found in the most simple things..

© John Womack, 2006. All Rights Reserved.