2025.01.26 A Story For All Seasons, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

This story was originally told back in the 1970s by the Very Rev. Francis Sayers, one-time Dean of Washington National Cathedral. It was dusk, and the last tour of the day was winding down. The Dean was waiting to lock up when he spotted this scene.

A small girl, maybe six or so, bored with the drone of the tour guide conducting the last tour of the day, became fascinated by the light reflected from the round Rose Window at the West end onto the floor below. It represented Creation/The Beginning.   

The child glanced back a few times to make sure her mother wasn’t looking and had not yet spotted her straying. Not yet. She kept walking towards the light. When she reached the edge of its circumference, she looked up at the window and down at the light’s reflection. She stood there simply gazing, her small head bobbing up and down. Finally, she put one toe into the light and drew it back quickly. Several times she checked the light’s omnipresence. At last, encouraged, she stepped into the circle of light on the floor. Still checking its presence above her, she began to move about, cautiously at first then with confidence.    

It was then that mama realized her child was not at her side. She began her own frantic search for her child whom she spotted far away. Mama began the journey, first running then slowing to a walk, then faster again, all the way down the long aisle. The dean, still in the shadows, watched intently as this mother reached her goal then stopped, entranced by the sight of her small daughter moving safely and gracefully about. The child, uninterrupted, looked up at her mother and said:  “Look mommy. Look! I’m dancing with the light. I’m dancing with the light”  

With the light.  

2023.12.24 WITHNESS—A Day In The Life Of A Very Fine Preposition, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

Here's a story. It’s a true story told many years ago at Christmas by the then dean of Washington National Cathedral. Do not worry, the story is not a preachy/teachy sermon! Still, it might make you feel whole for no good reason. 

Prepositions, as you know, are small words, such as to, with, of, for, before, after. Such wee words play a very important role in the world of words, because they connect one thing to another, and put us in touch with deeper meaning. WITH is a  joining preposition. 

*  *  *  * 

Once upon a time in the late 1970s in the dimming dusk of evening in a very grand cathedral there happened a very tiny event—one worth telling over and over for no rational reason. 

Cathedrals as you know have extraordinarily high vaulted ceilings and many sparkling stained glass windows. There is a VERY long center aisle connecting the east end, where the sun rises and the altar stands, to the west end, where the sun sets and where there is an enormous round stained glass window called the Rose window, because of course it resembles the beauty of a rose blooming, bursting flamboyance all over. 

Once upon a time in the late 1970's, the Very Rev.Francis Sayers, stood in the shadows of the side aisle and waited for the final tour to end so he could close up and go home. As he strolled down the side aisle towards the west end, listening to the soft drone of the tour guide, something unusual caught his eye. He stopped. He saw a wee lass coming slowly down the long aisle. She was attracted to the circle of light made by the setting sun shining through the Rose window and shining onto the floor below. She walked slowly at first, turning to look back at her mother who would probably not approve of her straying.

But this child could not resist the light. She walked faster now down the long aisle. The dean watched. She reached the edge of the circle of light. She stood. She dipped one toe into the light and drew back.

The child stood in that crucial moment where the cataclysmic joy of disobedience meets the droning comfort of proper obedience. Which way will she choose? The dean watched. 

Now she stepped fully into the light and began to dance, slowly at first then faster, swirling and twirling.

Her mother suddenly noticed her daughter’s absence. She turned, then began to run down the aisle, calling for her daughter. When she reached the circle she scolded the child as any nervous parent would do. But the child kept dancing, turning her face to look up at her mother. 

“Mommy, Mommy, look. Look! I’m dancing with the light. I’m dancing with the light.” 

*  *  *  * 

This child dances WITH the light, not FOR it, as a performance, not IN it, as if to merge, but WITH it—joined, connected, together.   May we all practice WITH-NESS.  

2021.10.03 CREATION

The huge window, called the Rose Window, at Washington National Cathedral is at the west end. It is in dialogue with the altar at the east end. This colorful Rose Window sacralizes the biblical moment in the Genesis Creation story when God, joined by angels and all the company of heaven, called for Light.  The window looks over the people as they enter the building and as they move along the long aisles towards the altar facing East and where the focus of the Sacrament of Christ is central. Leaving the building people head West under the Rose window. The trajectory follows the path of the sunlight.  

Rose windows were not so called until the seventeenth century after the English flower named rose. This window was installed in 1976 in time for the nave’s completion and dedication. It’s a “Creation” window. Its design starts in the middle, where pieces of white glass send thousands of rays of light radiating outward as the petals of a rose. Designed by Cathedral master artisan Rowan LeCompte and fabricated by Dieter Goldkuhle, the 26-foot window celebrates the majesty and mystery of all creation. The window includes every color LeCompte and Goldkuhle could summon, but key parts also represent the four Greek elements: red for fire; gray for air; green for water, and brown for the earth. I regret that this image is not clear enough for you to see the mastery and wonder. It is fascinating to me that people enter the cathedral under the eye of God/Creator and leave the same way.

Here is another image, a photo of a rising sun lighting the way into the day, through roiling stirring waters. It transmits a similar message: Let there be light—to  guide and guard you on your path each day. In your coming in and in your going out.