It is a questing time. The spiritual path is a path of questioning, not as in doubt, but as in seeking. We may think the journey is geographic, at times, and it is, but it is always an inner journey. We are born to question. Remember the "why" of the toddler: Life happens. Why? Events occur. Why? People change. Why? The great joy of adult questing is that we can suspend judgment. We can, in Zen-Buddhist attitude, be of "no mind." We can start again by questioning. With each question we may soon discover paradox, for it often lives at the heart of the question. Questions carry tension. Tension increases energy. Energy breathes new life into each question. Choices are possible, changes are probable. Within the quest lies great truths like a treasure, generous substance of meaning, energy that breaks the barrier into infinity, divinity and all eternity. Questing is sacrament.

As I sit by the sea on Mackenzie Beach in Tofino, I see the sea creatures ride the tide and seek the hot sand for quiet retreat. I see the hot sand release its nestled creatures to the cool rhythm of the ocean. I witness the sacrament of nature, as living beings seek to change and are called to a new experience.

We humans, being naturally curious, seek changes, new experiences and newer callings. We each begin to focus our energy towards the tension, and the tension pulls at our energy. If the paradox becomes powerful, we begin to quest, perhaps individually, then communally, and then in ritual or liturgy. We long to quest at all these levels to create change.

In this summer of great family events: a daughter marries, another turns 40, a grandson turns 6, we gathered  the people (the seekers of shared experiences), broke bread, raised the cup of the covenant, and asked one another questions. These questions, in some instances, were "how" questions. How to build up the Church (the People of God)? How to help the disenfranchised Catholic? How to share experiences in local community? How to help the poor of the world? How to understand the Corpus movement, the CITI initiatives, the Xristos community? And how to honour in each other our various callings? As one person said so clearly: as christians, the heart of our word and action is the Gospel. I was uplifted by the questing of that day.

Hardly had I journeyed geographically from Ontario back to British Columbia, full of the richness of that June gathering, when I was jolted to another level of questing by two other "seeker" experiences.

The Xristos Community gathering at Chris and Naomi Diamond's communally raised questions ever more expanding. Who are we at this time? How have we served in the past year? Where do we wish to serve in future times? With whom shall we serve? Xristos has always been linked to Corpus Canada and publishes this Journal. Now Arthur Menu identified the differences among the seekers of these two linked communities. Arthur began a dialogue at this point and extended it to the Corpus-N internet list. It is an ongoing quest that is full of tension and energy. I believe it will create change.

The second "seeker" experience came from the internet. First of all, the evening at CTV’s affiliate, Talk TV, in Toronto, where the subject of discussion was Religion and the Internet raised my awareness of the deep need for spirituality, particularly among young people. Then I was excited and energized by David Gawlik’s electronic Newsletter,"Mirabile Dictu," which highlighted the WOW Conference in Dublin. Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB raised the question of discipleship in her address to the conference. Parallel to this, appearing on the net, was a commentary by Pete Szafran, forwarded by Paschal Baute, questioning what the Church renewal movement might learn from the AA (12 Step) movement. Both raised the same question: What do people need? What do people really, really need? Is christian discipleship not about living in this world the way that Jesus lived in his? ...Oh, I could dance for the joy of the question!

In my vision questing some years ago, after first praying and ritualizing in a community workshop, I wrote pages and pages of questions. Our leader guided this quest. And now this memory came back because of all the questions that Arthur, Sr. Joan, Pete's commentary, dialogue with Fran, liturgies and prayer within community stirred in so many of us. What do people need? What do people really, really need? Where is this life-changing community? Will we really listen? Will we dare to drastically love someone? Will we lead people to the heart of their healing? How will we attract people? What qualities create discipleship? As Sr. Joan says: "Are women simply half a disciple in our Church?" Is Corpus really three movements, not one? Can we accept each other's limitations? sins?

Who did Jesus really, really love?