Shoeless

I am from Kentucky and grew up without shoes willingly. I still do. My husband grew up in the Orient. Another shoeless civilization. We don't wear shoes in the house and if the weather is nice I'm shoeless outside much to his chagrin.

Recently I felt the need to remove my shoes during Mass. I quietly slip them off and put them under the empty seat. Socks go in my purse.

I didn't come up with this all by myself but the Lord led me. I have studied the Carmelite religious order (St Theresa of Avila and St Therese of Lisieux) which is discalced or shoeless. Their simplicity attracted me. Not just being shoeless.

Still I was concerned whether it was appropriate to be shoeless in church. I am always recognized as the only woman in the church who wears a chapel veil. I always intend to wear a skirt but don't always make it. Maybe I am crazy.

Then the Lord led me to scripture:

Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the farthest end of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: 'I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.' And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: 'Moses, Moses.' And he said: 'Here am I.' And He said, "do not come closer; remove your shoes from your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground." Shemot (Exodus) 3:1-5

I am honoring God by humbling myself. That is my decision and God's direction to me.