From the floor of the cathedral in Chartres, France, comes an ancient mystical exercise that is nourishing a growing number of modern spiritual seekers.
More and more people are walking labyrinths, in search of inner peace, healing or deeper spiritual awareness. Not to be confused with a maze, which is intended to confuse and amuse those who enter, a labyrinth is an intricate geometric pattern laid out on the floor or ground that provides an elaborate but unbroken path for contemplation. There is one way in and one way out.
In the Baltimore area, two labyrinths have opened in time for this Lenten season of spiritual preparation -- one at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church and the other outdoors, on the grounds of the Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Marriottsville -- bringing the total in this region to at least a half-dozen.
"It may sound New Age, but it really isn't," said the Rev. Jarrett T. Wicklein, pastor of Mount Vernon Place, where the 37-foot-diameter labyrinth sits in an unused chapel dominated by a large rose stained-glass window. "The way we're using it finds its roots in the Christian tradition: sacred journey, sacred pilgrimage."
"Our desire is to create an atmosphere where people can get in touch with the mystery of God's presence in their life by using this ancient pattern for walking in prayer," hesaid. "It's a way to walk in meditation, to release what is troubling you and to find peace and understanding. It is a way to find spiritual awakening."
At the Bon Secours Spiritual Center, retreat participants had requested a labyrinth for years. The labyrinth, 55 feet in diameter and constructed of paving bricks, was completed late last month, in conjunction with the Sisters of Bon Secours' 175th anniversary.
"We haven't told anybody about it, but people have been showing up," said Sister Connie Gilder, the center's director of marketing. "On the very morning it was finished, one hour later, there was this man out there walking the labyrinth. We don't know who he was or where he came from."
Spiritual experience
For Steven M. Eutsler, a foreman for Town Creek Landscaping in Ellicott City, supervising the construction of the Bon Secours labyrinth started out as just another job. Then, near its completion, he was laying out the center stones, a six-sided cloverleaf, and he had what he described as a spiritual experience.
