Words: Words as sacraments

Harvey Gillman reflects on words as sacraments

by Harvey Gillman 5th December 2014

Looking at the stained glass window beyond the prepared altar, waiting for the choir to process in for the requiem mass and considering how Friends do these things very differently, an idea stuck me with great force. Words may be our sacraments, offering a glimpse of the beyond: channels, not vessels; a glimpse, not a definition. A sacrament is an outer reality channelling an inner grace. Religious language does not hold reality; it is a channel that allows us, at its best, to behold it at a deeper level.