What is a Mystic Pearl and What's the Back Story?

🌊 "All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography."  -Federico Fellini 🌊

TheMysticPearl.com is a little corner of the web where I share  reflections on the images and insights gained in prayer and meditation.

My name is Dorinda, and lots of people call me Dee.  I'm a Louisiana girl raised on the seafood of the Gulf.  Maybe that's why God relates to me with the familiar images of oysters and pearls.  

Below are  reflections I offer to shed some light on the title of this website:

The Mystic Pearl: Reflections from the Seashell of Serenity 

The long version of the Serenity Prayer contains a line that poses a challenge:

"Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace."

Acceptance.  Acceptance of life on life’s terms.  

As we all know, life will include the mundane and it will include adventure.  It will include joy, and it will include pain. 

Many of us have experienced painful pebbles in our own lives and in the lives of our loved ones – pebbles that may include untimely death, relationship loss, financial need, disease or addiction.

These problem pebbles often lead us to seek GOD because of the intense Gift of Desperation.

My personal Gift of Desperation came at a time in my life when false thoughts of self-pity and self-sufficiency led me to ask the age-old question God, why do I have to suffer so much?  

This meditation flows from God’s unexpected answer to that question.  An answer that came in a sudden interior vision of an oyster with a painful pebble stuck inside – with the pebble then being transformed into a pearl. 

I then “saw” two simple words -- "raw material."

The vision spoke to my heart that the pain of perceived problems is not intended as cruel punishment.  It is simply raw material for our loving God to transform our hearts into a glorious pearl of great price – a mystic pearl of peace, Presence and higher purpose.

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This vision gave me new eyes to see that when we feel the pain of life on life’s terms, we can pause, pray, and look for the Light -- the new thing God is creating in each and every circumstance, whether it’s something we would have chosen or not.  After all, God is the author of Life.  It's His story to tell.  

So, how is this luminous mother of pearl activated in our inner world to transform the painful pebbles of our thoughts into pearls of peace within our hearts?

The ancient wisdom of every world religion echoes a major teaching practiced in twelve-step spirituality -- that inner peace begins when we TRUST GOD's mercifiul love to match calamity with serenity. 

The layers of light grow as we CLEAN HOUSE with a daily examination of conscience.  

Our inner world pearl then glows in the Sunlight of the Spirit as we open our hearts and HELP OTHERS by sharing our experience, strength and hope.

Trust God.  Clean House.  Help Others. 

That spiritual prescription has worked miracles in my life and in the lives of millions who practice twelve-step spirituality.

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This meditation invites us to rest inside the Seashell of Serenity, a metaphor for the Secret Place deep within each of us where Divine Light transforms the pebbles of our thoughts into pearls in our hearts. 

The Seashell of Serenity is my image for God's loving embrace.  It is like being in the hands of God.  It is like a vulnerable oyster body that is nestled in its shell -- rough and protective on the outside, while smooth and swirling with luminous light on the inside.

When we make the conscious decision each day to abide in that Seashell of Serenity, we ask to become the pearl we wish to see in the world.  We ask to spiritually grow into the women and men God created us to be.

We ask to for the grace to glow through what we go through.  

We ask to be layered in the Pearly Presence of God so that we can reflect  the Sunlight of the Spirit to others and to our innermost selves.

And from that experience of abiding with God in the depths of my soul, I experience healing from grief.  I experience joy in the quiet gratitude of the little things.  I breathe underwater because God's loving mercy is my oxygen mask.  

And I write.  Here's a little prayerful poetry that I wrote from the depths of the Pearly Presence while healing from the loss of my young adult son:

The Prayer of the Mystic Pearl

My God, who is Love 

I surrender myself to you;

to transform the pebbles in my thoughts

to Pearls of Mercy in my Heart 

as I abide within your Seashell of Serenity.  

Spouse of Wisdom,  Mother of Pearl, 

cover my thoughts, layer by layer,

with thin, soft blankets of liquid luminous Love

until I shimmer like you shine,

clothed in the Sunlight of the Spirit. 

Amen.

+DCP 2025