What makes a chapel, a chapel, I ask myself? I come here seeking peace, silence, tranquility. I look around the room. I see the stained glass art hanging on the wall. Beneath it is a long wood table. A single vase with a dry arrangement rests at one end. At the other is a guest book. I recall turning pages in that book, reading some of the entries, the reasons others had come here. Some were grieving the illness or loss of a loved one. Some were seeking solitude, answers or guidance. I recall reading the entry of an employee who had visited on her last day. She left a testimony of what her work had meant. She had come to say goodbye. She had come to remember and to be remembered. Feeling inspired, I wrote my own entry that day. Remembering this makes me smile. I continue scanning the room. In front of me is a table made from a tree trunk upon which my water bottle sits. I am sitting in one of five chairs arranged in a circle around it. There is a couch against one of the walls with a side table and lamp. The couch and chairs are upholstered in light shades of blue, the walls painted a calming green. There is a place for Catholics to kneel and pray and a rug for Muslim prayer. In one corner is a cabinet made of a warmly stained wood. The upper half contains a historical display of religious texts. I take this all in and decide that it is not the things in the room, exactly, which make this a chapel. It is the subtraction of things.
There are no discussions to be had here, no meetings, no supporting rationals to be given. Here, I need not be “on”, ready to go, shoes laced. The decor, it contributes, but its contribution is in that it is almost meant to go unnoticed. Yet, I notice this.
I ask myself, is it the absence of things which allows for the presence of God? If I took any particular moment in my life and subtracted what was going on, would I not find this same space? Would I not find God?
I come to the chapel seeking silence. So then, am I not seeking God? And when I am seeking God, do I not go to quiet places, to the wilderness? Do I not go alone? To give God my attention, I go to quiet places and I go alone.
Meditation is a place of silence.
Meditation is a place of solitude.
Meditation is a place where I can be with God.
Meditation is where I go now, to seek silence, to seek solitude, to seek God.
