Submitted by cmcoffice on
So what is your reaction to the spiritual practice of washing feet? My friend Jan says she runs as fast as she can when she hears the term. For myself, there have been very positive experiences and a couple not so great. It actually can be an amazing and intimate spiritual opportunity, and I use it occasionally with nursing home and hospice patients I know well.
A simple question? Do you run, or do you engage in foot washing? Perhaps these words will be a special blessing to you today. I truly hope so.
Would You Mind if I Wash Your Feet?
By Macrina Wiederkehr (Seasons of Your Heart: Prayer and Reflections)
If Christ should suddenly stand before me with a towel thrown over his shoulder and a pan of water in his hands, would I have the humility to take off my shoes and really let him wash my feet?
Or, like Peter, would I say: “Wash my feet, Lord? Never!”
Christ has stood in front of me on many a day. It hasn’t always been a pan of water that he’s held in front of me, for water is only one symbol of a way to be cleansed and healed. Sometimes he hold a Bible, or sends a letter, or calls me on the telephone. Sometimes she holds a loaf of bread, or a cup of tea, or gives me her shoulder to cry on. Christ comes in so many ways, in so many people, always holding out that basin of water and asking that same embarrassing question: “Would you mind if I wash your feet?”
The beautiful thing about that burning, persistent, foot-washing question is that eventually it calls forth the same question from your heart. Then you discover that your basin is full of water and your heart is full of a call: a call to wash feet.
I discover who I am
in the act of washing feet
It frightens me to be so powerful
To have so much power and so much grace
hidden in the mountains and valleys of my being
is scary
I am beginning to suspect who I am
It is so much to be faithful to.
Standing before me
with a cup of tea in her hands
She revealed to me
my foot-washing potential
(Would you mind if I wash your feet?)
How about tea every morning at then?
she asked.
Sure, I answered
a little embarrassed
at being so touched
by something that simple
It will make ten o’clock sacred
she assured me.
I nodded in agreement
It was at the right moment she had come
(God always comes at the right moment.)
Nothing had risen in my heart that morning
and I could tell from her eyes,
she, too, was waiting for a rising.
It happened simply
like Jesus washing Peter’s feet
We, too, had names
and we lived them
A few words were exchanged
over a cup of tea
and, together, we were the rising
The action was so simple one could miss it.
It frightens me to be so powerful
so very full of grace.
Would you mind if I wash your feet?
Michele received verbal copyright permission from St. Scholastic Monastery May 1, 2020.
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