Daily Meditation for February 8, 2023

Have you ever watched a weaver at work? Even when you know very little about weaving, it’s obvious that you need both warp and woof—both vertical and horizontal threads—to produce a fabric of cloth. The fabric of human life is similar to a fabric of cloth in some very basic ways. Think of the warp or vertical threads as our relationship with God, and the woof or horizontal threads as our relationship with self, other people, and the rest of creation. When the threads of our lives are integrated and the tension is right, the horizontal threads interlace smoothly and beautifully with the vertical. Love of God (like the warp) and love of neighbor (like the woof) are part of the same fabric, so closely related that we experience them as two aspects of the same love. When we neglect either the horizontal or the vertical, or when we try to keep them separate, then the fabric of life begins to unravel. How well integrated are the threads of my life-fabric?

By Delores Dufner, OSB