The Rock on the Beach

Last week I took time out to enjoy the summer that seems to have finally arrived! I took a trip to the National Seashore located on the outer Cape. I had my beach chair, some good books and plunked myself in the middle of Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown. It was the first real sunny day in ages so I spent the day there.
When I arrived, the tide was going out and as the hours ticked by I could see a large rock emerging on the beach, coming out from under the water as the tide ebbed away. I watched as the waves splashed repeatedly into the rock and thought of myself as that rock. I asked myself am I like the rock that stands stubbornly in the face of trials and tribulations, resisting and fighting life? Or am I like the rock that allows and welcomes the waves to gently flow over me, slowly reshaping me into something anew?
The Holy Spirit is very much like the waves of the ocean. Sometimes coming crashing into you and at other times gently washing over you, and through you, bringing you to new life. Water has the awesome power to transform us through Baptism. The next time you encounter water, in the shower, doing dishes, or at the beach pause and take a moment and reflect upon its life-giving qualities both in the physical and spiritual sense.

 As the tide returned and re-covered my rock, the refrain from the song “Sacred Silence” kept running through my head as a prayer… It is a good prayer to remember as we go about our summer activities:

Sacred silence, holy ocean,
gentle water, washing over me.
Help me listen, Holy Spirit,
come and speak to me.
“Sacred Silence” - Tom Booth
                                                          God bless, Holly Clark!