Forgiveness and new beginnings are enhanced in a hospitable place like this. It's as though God always insures that there will be sacred spaces where we can find hope for the future and reprieve from the despairing cycles of human sin and fragmentation of the past. The symbols of faith at Chimayo were primarily from one religious tradition, but there they felt not so much sectarian as symbols of a divine loving reality to which we all belong. A simple trust of the reality and goodness of divine presence is the bottom line in those groups, through whatever practices and talks a leader may offer. The common willingness for such simplicity and the encouraging hospitality attempted by the group's caretaker can be very empowering of real openness to God.
People often come to contemplative groups seeking some kind of healing, too.
They may come with some particular healing in mind, as people often do at Chimayo, but if they sit wanting God even more than they want a healing, they open to an even deeper healing, that of their relationship with God. As God offers that healing, they are freed more and more from the past, freed to embrace the fresh grace of the living moment. They show more signs of the radiant, compassionate souls they're meant to be. The contemplative group offers stimulus and support for this mysterious expansion of the spiritual heart. In a less self-conscious and more sustained way, I suspect that such a deeper sense of healing and spiritual nurture shows itself often at Chimayo, as well.