Prv 8:22-31
Rom 5:1-5
Jn 16:12-15

Mapquest Holy Trinity Style
I am a hospice chaplain, most of our patients live in their homes, while some live in group homes of nursing homes. Two years ago I moved from a familiar city where I had lived for 25 years and a familiar job where I ministered as a hospital chaplain. Now I live in a new area of the country, in a new city and in a relatively new job. I am often driving to unfamiliar places and meeting new people as a hospice chaplain.

Mapquest has become my new best friend as it takes a little information like an address and gives me a full report on the how to get to this person’s house or that professional location. It is great! I use it a lot! Maybe that will change with time and familiarity.

When I go to see a patient for the first time, I know very little about them. There really isn’t a Mapquest that I use to help me know their deepest secrets, their quiet fears, the most unusual experience in their life, or where God is and where God might have gone. (From their perspective) Orienting me to that precious landscape comes with time and trust, crisis and celebrations. Sometimes it is sped up by the stories their friends and family members tell. Or sometimes it happens after they have died in a story told at the funeral.

On Sunday June 3rd we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Trinity. The readings are rich in describing the various ways through which the members of this Trinity have and are present in our lives. In a way it is a kind of historical mapquest for the Holy. However, this mapquest doesn’t tend to jump off the page of intellectual reading until we encounter the presence, the power of this Incarnate God; and as important, you are often the vehicle through which others encounter the Trinity.

We are the mile markers, the points through which others experience hope or solace, steadfastness or love. As this summer breathes itself into being, I seek to be open to be part of this divine mapquest. I also ask for the grace to be able to see the mile markers in my everyday life that are there to point the way.