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AwakeningSoul testimony by the Rev. Lisa Green
In the middle of the night in the middle of August 2021 I googled “Catherine Meeks Pádraig Ó Tuama” and up came the Awakening Soul website. I could hardly believe my eyes. For months I had felt a strong sense that these two wise ones who had so blessed my life over the past few years should do something together. I was almost at the point of suggesting the idea to Dr.
Meeks, who was consulting on our anti-racism work here in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, where I serve as Associate at St. Martin’s, Williamsburg. Finding out that someone else had the same idea, and that AS was coming up in early November, was a thrilling discovery. This timing meant the conference would be the culmination of my nine-month journey of “Living in the Layers,” a parish pilgrimage about our patron and founders that included my summer sabbatical, just before we celebrated our feast day on November 14. I couldn’t wait to register.
I had first encountered Catherine in a livestreamed TEConversation on Racial Reconciliation, part of the the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in July 2018. I reached out to her twice over the next couple of years, first about a conference at William and Mary, my alma mater, and later when I noticed her name among the faculty for the Haden Institute spiritual direction training I was considering.
We talked on the phone, and I was touched by her kindness, particularly when I mentioned the recent death of my 24-year-old stepson. I was scheduled to be part of a Justice Pilgrimage at her Absalom Jones Center in May 2020, but it was postponed due to the pandemic, eventually taking place virtually this past May 2021. Meanwhile, I attended an embarrassing number of the Center’s Zoom events, worked with Catherine on our diocesan anti-racism project and the (virtual) William and Mary conference, and invited her to preach via Zoom at St. Martin’s. She was also among the speakers at the 2021 Haden Institute Summer Dream and Spirituality conference that I attended virtually at the start of my sabbatical.
My connection to Pádraig was much less personal, but no less impactful. I think I first heard him speak via livestream at the Trinity Institute “Values in Action” conference in February 2018. Later I listened to his On Being interview, enthralled by what he read from In the Shelter—but surprisingly it took me until my sabbatical to read the whole book. Meanwhile I’d used his Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community in my own practice and in many parish and community events. In one group two years ago, a parishioner shared his Advent reflection about Emily Dickinson and John the Baptist, two of my favorites. Since then I’d Zoomed in for several of his retreats, webinars, and poetry conversations, and become a faithful listener of Poetry Unbound. So it was a huge gift to see Catherine and Pádraig together in person at Awakening Soul! Their talks were so resonant with “Living in the Layers”: truth-telling, becoming braver, the power of poetry, being willing to be reinvented, and reinventing our communities.
Unfolding changes in my personal life made me especially grateful as everything worked together to foster reflection and healing—presentations, worship and music, lovely setting, kindred conversations. The icing on this rich cake was meeting Carrie Graves, whose enthusiasm for our shared patron St. Martin rivaled mine to a degree I would not have thought possible. So I wasn’t that surprised when just before Catherine and Pádraig’s joint conversation Sunday morning, Lindsey sang Blackbird: “All your life, you have just been waiting for this moment to arrive.” Indeed.
Thanks and blessings to Diana, Brian, and anyone else who sensed the “similar energetic threads” of these two earthy and honest teachers (with a shared love of ironing!?) and brought them together for all of us.
NOTE: Dr. Meeks will join us for part of AwakeningSoul again in 2022! See below.
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