How do you connect with the Divine?

Last week I was trained as a Eucharistic Minister for the hospital where I work. Though I’ve been Catholic since I was little, it never occurred to me that I would be trained to provide Communion. Soon into my residency, though, it became clear that it would help my team if I am able to do this because the list of requests can be long. Patients need their sacraments, especially in times of trouble and fear. They need to feel like God is with them, and a sacrament is an experience of Divine presence.

I was asked by a patient for Holy Communion soon after my training. I was nervous as I kneeled at the tabernacle to collect the eucharistic wafer. Was I a good enough person to provide this sacrament? As I said the prayers and offered the transubstantiated bread to the recipient, I realized that this had nothing to do with me. The question wasn’t whether or not I was good enough to provide Communion, the question was whether or not I was willing to serve as a conduit between the patient and her experience with the holy. I was.

This event made me wonder about how people who do not have faith or spiritual practice invoke the transcendent with this kind of intentionality. A routinely performed ritual is not the same thing as a sacrament. A sacrament provides a knowing beyond the ordinary; it brings a person to a different level of consciousness. If not through a mindfully designed ceremony meant to achieve a feeling of holiness, how can we invoke a sense of wholeness?

Perhaps Mother Nature can provide examples. Biological events in our lives are some ways of feeling our spiritual wholeness and connection to Divine Spirit. For instance, there is a reason we call childbirth a “miracle.” A woman’s body connects to an ancient and inner knowledge during the stages of labor. Early and active labor move a mother and baby from the stability of gestation to a new state of being. At transition, when the pain can be blinding, one can feel utterly overcome with the realization that she is not in control. When the urge to push compels her to action, she can feel larger forces at work than ego and desire.

The separation of baby from mother is an unforgettable feeling. One whole thing becomes two. Someone new is now on the earth. This is Mother Nature’s sacrament of beginning, and it is powerfully holy.

What are your paths to meet with Divinity? How do you experience communion with that which is so much more powerful than us?