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Mirror Medallion Toward the end of my Lenten hermitage in 2003, I began to have a very dynamic experience of the Trinity, as a movement through me, in me, and out of me. I so wanted to thank God for all I had been given during those days, and I realized that the only way I could fittingly thank God was to offer God back to God, just as is happening in the Trinity. I wanted to become the very willing relay station for the breath of God. Each evening I took a long walk down a steep hill and back up again. Of course, I began to breathe heavily on the return, and I gradually conformed my breath to my steps. I found myself saying the word “beauty” as I took in each breath, and then “back” as I breathed out. Again and again, “Beauty. . .Back. . .Beauty. . .Back” It soon became my form of walking meditation. I knew the phrase had come from a line from my favorite poet, the Jesuit, Gerard Manley Hopkins. In his lesser known poem, “The Golden Echo” he had said: “Deliver it early now, long before death. Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty back to God, beauty’s self and beauty’s giver.” In “Morning, Midday, and Evening Sacrifice”, he says, “This, all this beauty blooming, This, all this freshness fuming, Give God while worth consuming.” I began to think of some way that I could help others to participate in this wonderful flow of life through me. It seemed like a living experience of the Trinity: We are the embodied Christ and the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, giving praise to the Father by our very existence. I pictured wearing a “mirror medallion” that would take in all scenes in front of me moment by moment. It would not look like a piece of religious jewelry, but merely a plain mirror that always takes in EXACTLY WHAT IT SEES, WITHOUT DISTORTION OR JUDGMENT OR ANALYSIS, only love. The back of the mirror would have an image of the EYE OF GOD forever gazing at me with love, respect, and even desire. I had recently come across a largely ignored passage in James 4:5: It said, “The longing of the Spirit that He sent to dwell in us is a jealous longing”. Let’s be a part of that deep and conscious longing for God! In India, they have the notion of “darshan”: The Hindus go to the temple, not to see God, statues, rituals, as much as TO BE SEEN BY GOD! This mirror medallion could help us to allow God look at us as we are, to gaze at us, to delight in us! So this medallion is to educate you in the flow, in the ability to both receive and reflect back the glory of God, which is why I chose the quote from 2 Cor. 3:18 for the back. It is actually an exercise in passivity, in allowing, in surrendering, in enjoying what is already happening. Now the eye of God, gazing inwardly at your breast, will be a constant reminder of what is already happening. It will hold you in the Eternal Now and in the flow that is the very life of the Trinity.
Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.
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