From the Cenacle in Lantana, Florida (United States), a flyer for labyrinth ministry including days of prayer

Source: NAP, A-II Lantana, Florida, Box 5

The labyrinths at the Cenacle retreat houses are said to be based on the labyrinth laid in the floor at Chartres Cathedral in France, which was built around 1200. The medieval church labyrinths may have been designed as cosmological mandalas. They were originally used in sacred devotions as substitutes for pilgrimages to Jerusalem and for penance. The labyrinth at Chartres fills the full width of the nave, about 40 feet across, near the west portal or main entrance. From the center of the labyrinth to the door is the same distance as from the floor to the center of the rose window above.

A labyrinth can function as a spiritual path to finding truth, clarity, and inner peace. For people who find it difficult to sit and be quiet, walking comes readily. A labyrinth is not a maze. It has one way in and one way out without any dead ends or tricks to get lost in. The path winds throughout and becomes a mirror for where people are in their lives; it touches on sorrows and releases joys. Walking the labyrinth can be a silent meditation walk, or it can be walked holding a question, person, or word in one’s heart. Walking can be a healing event. There is no right or wrong way to walk.

In some of the Cenacle houses’ labyrinth ministry, there were three stages of the walk:

The first (until one reaches the center of the labyrinth) is called shedding—a releasing, a letting go of the details of one’s life. It quiets the mind.

The second—Illumination—is when one reaches the center. A retreatant can stay there as long as they like. It is a place of meditation and prayer where one receives what is there to be received.

As the retreatant leaves, they follow the same path out of the center as they came in. They then enter the third stage—Union—which is joining God. Each time a retreatant walks the labyrinth they become more empowered to find and do the work they feel their soul searching for.