Naming the Divine

by Linda Mastro

A friend’s Facebook post got me thinking about the significance of names. She was musing about the folly of pulling wild onion grass out of one flower bed and planting chives in another. She remembered her grandfather saying, “There are no ‘weeds’–just plants growing where we don’t want them to grow.”

A few days later I had a similar text exchange with another gardener friend. I had sent her a picture of what I had been calling a weed in my garden that I find especially sweet, despite its tendency to take over. I told my friend that I think the weed is called Star of Bethlehem. She wrote back, “once we name something in the garden it is a flower, not a weed.”

Language shapes who we are and how we behave. Our words create our world. Whether in the garden or in relationships, naming is a judgment that determines how we interact with what we are naming.

When I see weeds in my garden I wage a battle to remove them by pulling them or with weed killer. Renaming the weed “flower,” gives me a choice: Do I want that flower in my garden? If so, is it in the right place? Whether I remove it relocate it, I do so with more care and less animosity.

I look at the heart-shaped leaves that invade my garden with more appreciation, now that I call them “violets.” I did not understand the nature of goldenrod when I planted a patch a few years ago. After several seasons of watching it choke other plants for its own well-being, I dug it up without blame. After all, it was just doing what it is designed to do. I have become a more informed and responsible gardener, placing plants where they will thrive and complement their neighbors.

In a conversation with a friend about the transformative power of naming weeds, she expanded this practice to our perspective on God. She observed that “when we name the Divine something is lost.”

For years I was unable to use the word “God,” because it represented too many complaints about what religious institutions had done in God’s name. As I reconciled myself with the Catholic Church I stopped blaming God for the sins committed on behalf of the Divine.

As a spiritual guide and retreat leader I ask people to share their name for God. The answers are a clue to the namer’s relationship to God. For some people the answer is simply “God.” For others, it is “Father,” “Universe,” “The Divine,” “Mystery.” One woman, a bit tentatively, told me that she calls her higher power “Betsy.”

In Joyce Rupp’s book, Fragments of Your Ancient Name – 365 Glimpses of the Divine for Daily Meditations. she offers a name for God for each day of the year, along with a poem and an intention. The names are inspired by scripture, poetry, and the experiences of spiritual masters through the ages. On May 11, Rupp names God “Flower of Love.” Using this name, she describes God:

You are the bud in relationships

Newly found and enjoyed.

You are the petals of generosity

Expanding in the heart.

You are the full bloom of care

Shaped through selflessness.

You are the color of goodness

Growing in the inner garden.

You are, for each of us,

The Flower that never fades.

 

TODAY: I tend the garden of Love.

Every day my garden looks different. Something new is blooming. A plant loses its life to bugs. Weeds and flowers compete for sunshine, water, and space. As I experience the nature of life in the garden, I learn something about each plant – and about myself.

In every season of life, I experience new aspects of the Divine, naming and re-naming this loving force. God answers the call, even when words fail me.

Ponderings:

• What “weed” – an unwelcome visitor to your garden or in your life – could you rename?
• How might a new name change your perspective?
• What name do you use for God?
• How does this name describe your relationship with the Divine?