writing the sacred

Today I spent up at San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville. A poet and author of Writing the Sacred, Ray McGinnis, of Vancouver, BC led a group of about 35 of us in lessons about sacred poetry using the Psalms as our guide. "The psalms are the voice of our own common humanity.. a voice that continues to have amazing authenticity.. It speaks about life the way it really is, for in those deeply human dimensions the same issues and possibilities exist." W. Brueggemann. We wrote our own psalms using repetition... acrostics, stem sentences, favorite refrains, like Seek and You Shall Find.. filling in stanzas with heartfelt prayer, and letting the pen fly. Most of the participants were mature women, (one man), and had come from all parts of the Bay
Area. A self select group, everyone was eager to learn and write. At the end of the day, I suggested to a group of 8 that I would benefit from writing in a group to continue the practice. I thought maybe a small handful would be interested. Maybe. Six other women said they'd be interested in forming a writing group. Let the e-mails begin! We will seek and we will find God together as a group of praying writers... psalmists.