Preparing for Worship & Vocal Ministry

by Susan

Before I join the spiritual sanctuary of worship, I often ask myself the question “Am I in good spirits?” That doesn’t mean I have to be in good spirits. But the question is one I return to over and over. I equate its answer with the measure of my openness, my readiness, and my preparation for conversing with Spirit in my life and in the spiritual community of worship with Friends. It really is an everyday question that has rays like the sun.

Preparation begins at any point. It took me many years to understand that my body is not only a temple but a conduit to Spirit. My response of choice to difficult things and feelings was to stuff them into a hidden place, but they showed in putting on excess weight. What I was hungry for was not food. This truth leads me to so much spiritual growth.

I look for beauty everywhere and I really need it. As a teenage girl I had a very false understanding of what it was to be an Aphrodite; I struggled mightily with my feminine side. Reconciling came slowly and I had to lay claim to my abilities to appreciate the arts, the dance, the human form, nature, poetry and the heart. And I had to give great kindness to myself.

I go back to these things in the past because right relationship and wholeness are so important for us humans to move toward, even if we move like a snail. God wants us to be perfect (whole).

I enjoy paying attention to words. There are words, thoughts, poems that nurture my soul and/or challenge me in the space I live. I look regularly for where words can take me in my spiritual journey. I go on little journeys with words and see where the paths lead. I take the love of words and their power with me to meeting, then I let them sit in that spiritual place to see if they will grow or transform or rise. Sometimes they do, sometimes not. Often I know they should lay low.

I wait for signals in my body: balance, heat, vibrations, quaking. Breath is so important; when asked where God is in their body, young children may say in their breath or their mouth. I figure that God in my body can come out of my mouth.

Each of us has within us seeds of vocal ministry. It can come as a question, a song, a prayer, an insecurity, a hope, an emotion, a metaphor, or a desire. We can be in concert with one another and the Spirit, not a noisy concert, but one with just the right amount of rests, breath, and resonance, especially if we prepare and listen to the Spirit