A Liminal Space

Deanna Bartalini discusses the grace we can find in being in a place of waiting.

I first heard the phrase 'liminal space' while in graduate school and a friend of mine was on the spiritual track. She was studying various types of Catholic spirituality. Celtic spirituality was one type and in it, the term liminal space. I didn’t like it at the time and now, some 20 years later, I find myself embracing it.

What is it?

Liminal space is translated from the Latin word ‘limen’ which means threshold. It is that space where you are neither here nor there; physically I think of it as a doorway, but interiorly or spiritually I think of it as the place of becoming. It is a place of waiting. The question while waiting is often, ‘for what?” And I have always disliked waiting. I don’t mind waiting for the train to arrive or the plane to land: that sort of waiting is fine. It is waiting for the next thing to happen that is hard. Rather, it was hard.

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Liminal Space is Grace

Now, I am looking at the liminal space as a place of grace. A place where God and I work together on preparing for the next phase. I don’t necessarily have a clear vision of the next phase, so I wait. And wonder, trying my best to sit in the liminal space with Him and be comfortable there.

A few weeks ago, I talked on my podcast about this waiting and what happens there, this slow work of God. I recalled a prayer from the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "Trust in the Slow Work of God." There is a line that strikes me each time I pray it:

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

I am in suspense and that’s okay; I love surprises! But there is a bit of anxiety: what will God ask of me? When will I see the whole plan? I don’t know. And unlike the woman of 20 years ago, I am (mostly) okay with being in this liminal space. I try not to ask many questions. I know that this time will pass. It has happened before and will happen again.

Click to tweet:
If you find yourself in between this and that, feeling neither here nor there, consider it an invitation to the grace of a liminal space. #catholicmom

I would have liked this grace when I was younger. To have given me permission to not have all the answers and know the plan. If you find yourself in between this and that, feeling neither here nor there, consider it an invitation to the grace of a liminal space.