Finding My Cremaster, my anchor in prayer
About a month ago I watched a beautiful green and black stripped caterpillar as it clung to the stem of a potted parsley plant on the rectory deck. It stayed in one place for days, and then suddenly was gone. I wondered if it had eaten its fill and finally wandered off to create its cocoon and begin its long slow transformation into a butterfly. Or maybe not. I’ve read that caterpillars can live in denial of the road before them, remaining a caterpillar can prolonging the chrysalis stage for up to a year. However, when the caterpillar begins to build its chrysalis it forms a spiny protuberance at the end of its abdomen called a cremaster. The cremaster is like a button or patch of velcro, holding the pupa, the dissolved caterpillar, in place within the cocoon. It’s the anchor point from which the caterpillar hangs. Spiritually speaking there is a place where we too are fastened, no going backward, no going forward, or turning. We are fastened and everything else goes o