Rumi has said:

    Everyone near a saint
        gets drunk with God.

Have you had this experience?

Have you spent time with someone
    so obviously and intimately connected to the Divine
        that you came away from the encounter
            "drunk with God,"
    hushed in spirit,
        heart so filled with the awareness
            of God's reality and invasive presence
                that you felt stunned, released, whole?

My first time was in San Diego,
    early in my work as a youth pastor,
        attending a youth ministry conference.
One workshop was led by a Catholic nun
   (my first nun-encounter),
        who oozed, bled, spread the peace of God
            in a way I'd never experienced.
As she spoke–calm, articulate, compassionate–
    she embodied Christ,
       and I knew–knew—
           I was in Christ's presence.

I walked away dazed–
    drunk with God.

It's happened a few more times in my life,
    always unexpected,
        always transformative–
            Christ, once again, in the flesh.

    Everyone near a saint
        gets drunk with God.

I wonder, then,
    do others get drunk with God
        when they encounter us?

Text and image © 2020 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Have you ordered your copy of Contemplative Vision: Photography as a Spiritual Practice? 
Follow this link: https://www.churchpublishing.org/contemplativevision