Iona Renewal by Beth Prevo

I've been stuck for some time on my next post. I've really wanted to write about the grief of job loss and find that I simply cannot. I've started and stopped many, many times.

Sometimes when I'm stuck, I find it's best to move on and also to get some outside help. So today, I'm posting a deeply moving piece by my friend and Iona retreat co-leader Beth. Her descriptions of the remote beach with its seascapes and divine peace soothed me. If you are out there in need of such a thing, I hope they soothe you too.

And...if by chance you'd like to experience the renewal of Iona yourself in 2027, we do have two spaces left. See our retreat webpage and events for more.

The year was 2015. I was once again a part of a group from my church, heading to the sacred isle of Iona, off the western coast of Scotland. This is not a place that is found by accident, perhaps because of its size. Iona is about 1 mile wide and 4 miles long. To travel to Iona from the wonderful jumping off point of Glasgow, there is a relaxing train ride, a ferry ride, a one-hour’s bus ride give or take, then a short walk to the hotel. The length of the bus ride depends on how many times the bus must stop to allow sheep to cross the road, and how many times it must pull over on the one lane road to let another vehicle to pass. All delightful!

We left Glasgow right after breakfast and arrived on Iona mid-afternoon.

I must tell you I am a “go-backer”. Once I have found a place I love, I tend to return, to go-back, again and again. Iona is most definitely one of my go-back places, as evidenced by my 5 trips there. For me and my spirituality, Iona is one of those so-called thin places. A thin place is where the membrane, the separation, between us and the Divine is very, very thin. It takes no time at all for me to have an awareness of the presence of God within and around me.

Beth's photo view of Iona Abbey taken from the sea

During this third trip, however, I wasn’t quite yet experiencing that deep sense of

sacred presence. Thinking North Beach might be where God was hiding, I set out on

my own after morning service at the Abbey. The sea soothed as it went from a light

turquoise to a deep purple as it got further from land. Waves gently coming to shore

made the rocks glisten with deep reds and greens and whites and calmed me.

A few bars of the Taizé chant we’d sung in the Abbey floated through my

perception: “Come O Holy Spirit, Come. Come Almighty Spirit, Come.” I pondered

why the Divine Presence had not yet arrived. When would it arrive? Would it arrive? I

thought back to my last trip to Iona, 4 years ago. So much had transpired since then.

My goodness. A back injury and diagnosis of an auto-immune disorder had tag teamed,

pinning me to half-time work for a quarter. Thank God and Clinton for the Family

Medical Leave Act.

The loss of my little dog Damon, a dear friend dying without him even telling anyone he had lung cancer, and checking on a true soul mate I’d been concerned about and finding him dead. All these events, these gut-wrenching occurrences, these tragedies, had rumbled through the past 4 years since I’d last been on Iona. And I’d ridden these disruptions as a single woman. A single woman ensconced in a church family, true, but I’d slogged through these storms as a single woman. I was exhausted. I was depleted. I was overwhelmed, thinking back on those dreadful last 4 years.

Celtic cross on Iona in photo by Lynell Caudillo

I cried, more than a little bit, then sat. Listened to the sea. Watched the birds.

Breathed salt air in deeply. Rested. Realized I’d made it to Iona once again and was

now nestled inside a comfy embrace. God was with me. God would grant me rest and

renewal. Yes, renewal. That was it. I had finally returned to Iona because I needed

renewal, starting right now. I spied a couple of small, flat, almost perfectly round stones

on the beach. I gathered up 7, to remind me of the 7 letters in RENEWAL.

Another tune drifted through my mind – “In the Lord I’ll be ever thankful, in the

Lord I will rejoice. Look to God, do not be afraid, lift up your voices the Lord is near, lift

up your voices, the Lord is near!”

Amen and amen!