People sometimes ask what Mondays at Mary’s is.
I never quite know how to answer.
It isn’t exactly a Bible study.
It isn’t a home church.
It isn’t really a program at all.
It’s simply a table.
And every Monday afternoon, by God’s kindness, Christ meets us there.
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The truth is, we never meant to start anything.
It began when our pastor asked my husband and me to write an Advent book that would help our church community journey together in spiritual formation through the season.
It became a beautiful season of walking together.
Later, he asked us to write a Lent book.
As people began journeying through it day by day, several friends asked whether my husband and I would gather with them around a table.
We happily said yes.
Mondays at Mary’s had begun.
Not long afterward came the question almost everyone asks.
“So…what’s the schedule?”
“What will the program look like?”
My husband and I looked at one another and smiled.
“We don’t really have one.”
“We’ll simply walk together and trust the Spirit to lead us.”
Looking back now, I don’t think either of us imagined where that simple yes would lead.
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Some days we sing.
Someone usually brings a guitar.
Sometimes a ukulele joins in.
We pray.
We laugh.
We share how our week is going.
We open the Scriptures.
We share what each person sees.
We break bread together and sometimes share the Lord’s Supper.
If someone has a need, we gather an offering.
We listen and pray for one another.
Love simply notices.
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When we completed the journey through our Lent book, the group did not want to stop meeting. They asked if we would continue the journey through another book I had written, The Lord’s Prayer: A Contemplative Journey through Sacred Words.
In our first gathering with that book, we spent weeks on just two words.
Our Father.
Not because we couldn’t move on.
Because we didn’t want to.
Those two words carried different stories for each person around the table.
Some heard comfort.
Others heard longing.
Some discovered they weren’t alone.
Some found themselves healing as they listened to someone else’s story.
It slowly became clear that no one around the table possessed the whole gift.
Each person noticed something another had overlooked.
And together…
we began to see more.
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One afternoon, after coming for quite some time, someone thanked everyone around the table.
They said they had been carrying something alone for a long time.
“I’ve realized this is a safe place,” they said.
Then they thanked us for becoming an answer to a prayer they had been praying—for safe people to walk with them.
I don’t remember much of what we studied that afternoon.
I remember the table.
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Somewhere along the way, the table became larger.
One place at the table became a place within Mary’s home.
Love simply kept making room.
I suppose that’s what tables have always done.
A table rarely stays the same size for long when Christ is welcomed there.
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Sometimes people ask what the secret is.
I don’t think there is one.
No remarkable program.
No carefully crafted strategy.
Just ordinary people gathering around an ordinary table.
Singing.
Praying.
Opening the Scriptures.
Breaking bread.
Sharing one another’s burdens.
Helping one another see Christ more clearly.
None of us came to teach everyone else.
We came expecting Christ to teach all of us.
Perhaps that is what spiritual formation has always been.
Christ gently forming a people by teaching them to love one another.
One ordinary table at a time.
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When I think about it now, I wonder if this is what Paul had in mind when he prayed that we might comprehend the love of Christ together with all the saints.
Not because everyone around the table sees the same things.
But because each person sees something another might have missed.
That is one of the Spirit’s quiet works.
He gathers us not only to worship together, but to help one another behold more of Christ than any one of us ever could alone.
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People still ask me what Mondays at Mary’s is.
I still don’t know quite how to answer.
Perhaps it is simply this:
An ordinary table where there is always room for one more.
A place where no one is expected to have all the answers.
Where songs rise, prayers are whispered, bread is broken, burdens grow lighter, and Christ tenderly meets us through one another.
And somehow…
week after week…
the gathering keeps growing.
For that’s what happens whenever Christ is welcomed to the table.
There always seems to be room for one more.
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Thank you for pulling up a chair.
Has there been a table where Christ met you through the presence of others?
I’d love to hear what you’ve discovered.
— Gilda
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©️ Gilda Wray. All rights reserved.
What a beautiful description of our time together around the table. This time is truly a blessing and a calling for each one of us to become more of Him and less of ourselves as we empty our burdens before Him and embrace His love, His presence and comfort at Monday's at Mary's.
I’m in :)