In one version of the life of the Irish saint, Brigid, its author unfolds for his reader the unusual circumstances of Brigid’s birth.  It seems that her mother gave birth to Brigid at the moment she placed one foot over the threshold of the home.  So, Brigid is born in a doorway, on the threshold joining the inner world of the home and the outer world of nature and society. By including this story in his work, the author is revealing something important about the person Brigid will become.   She is destined to be an individual of profound spiritual insight, equally at home in both the spiritual and the physical world and who can recognise the places and moments when the two meet and overlap. 

 

Brigid is not alone or unique in this way.  We all share this capacity however, it does require a willingness to see ourselves and our experience differently. We need to shift our perspective – to gaze with new eyes.  It requires a willingness to notice how the Divine is at work in the world and in our human community.  This new way of seeing and being in relation to our world is a Gift and at the same time an Invitation.  The Threshold space is an invitation to open to mystery, to an encounter with a compassionate God. 

 

Thresholds are those in-between spaces, where an encounter with the Divine takes place, where wholeness and transformation is offered to us.  They are spaces where new vision is born, insight unfolds and where the call of God makes itself most intimately known.  Ultimately, the Threshold space is a place of blessing; a place of waiting for vision to unfold, a place of stretching and challenge where we are invited to embrace that unique vision.   It’s a place that requires a posture of openness and willingness so that a deep encounter can take place.

 

 

                       Much of my work as a spiritual director involves supporting and enabling people to notice and response                                                  to an unfolding Threshold space. They are encouraged to trust in a compassionate God who calls us to                                                      enter this space – to shift our perception on ourselves, our world and our unique place within it.  In the

                       Threshold space, we are invited to trust and embrace this mystical encounter with the One who calls us

                       Beloved.