“In my Father’s house there a many mansions.” House within a house? That does not make much sense does it? The Latin word mansio is the root of mansion; however it is more accurately translated as a resting place.
On a journey a resting place might be a brief stop, or it might be a longer stay for rejuvenation. During a pilgrimage the mansio may be the destination or it may be found along the path. Finding the space that rejuvenates you could be invaluable.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we took a pilgrimage that traced a probable 12km route along Saint Augustine’s path to Canterbury. Today we made a very different type of pilgrimage. Along this pilgrimage we rested in a small chapel up a very narrow set of curved stone stairs. We found ourselves in the Chapel of All Saints. This Holy Space high above the south transept dates to about 1400.
It was in this resting place, this place of hospitality that, after a reflection on a Bible passage, one of our fellow pilgrims led us in the singing of Dona nobis pacem.
The Chapel of All Saints became a mansio for me. I have other spaces like that as well, whether it is the office of my mentor, the sea, a mountain top, a kneeler before a candle, or my new found space Christ Church Canterbury Cathedral. We all need a space of hospitality and rejuvenation.
Sometimes that space is the journey, sometimes that space is the destination.
I pray that you find your own mansio and in the silence of the hospitality you remember that “silence is the language God speaks and everything else is a bad translation.”
From Canterbury I pray, Dona nobis pacem,
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