Our sacred service, our practice of communing with the divine, all centers around the altar. Not only is the altar the very place where we offer ourselves to God, it is traditionally a tomb, a symbol of death. The altar is a heavy stone, un-moveable, and at the same time, the very place we use to turn to Christ.

Within each one of us, within every human soul there is also an altar, an inner altar. We come to the inner altar in us the moment we find something in our souls heavy and un-moveable, something in us we cannot seem to change. And just like the altar in our chapel, the inner altar comes alive in us when we feel the need for Christ’s healing power, when we cry out for His presence.

For so often do we experience in life, things that cannot be changed. Circumstances, relationships, fears and above all worries that seem to come again and again no matter what we do. Worries for our children, our security, our livelihood.

And yet the Christ power in us does not seek to escape or run from these heavy stones in our souls; the Christ way would use these feelings as altars, the very place from which we call out to Him.

Dear friends, may the Act of Consecration, our sacred service, teach us all to become priests at our inner altars- that whenever we find ourselves worrying or afraid; beset with feelings that follow us like shadows, that we use these feelings as reminders to turn to Him, that we use these feelings as inner altars, asking Him to come close. The shadows in us then do not necessarily leave but are redeemed, transformed from merely un-moveable stones into the very place where He draws near.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by Matthew 6: 25-34