The last couple of days my body has asked for rest and so I have listened rather than pushed forward.  And in the quiet spaces I have been listening. Lent is doing its work on me.  Shadows are being illumined, layers of myself are being peeled back to reveal the depths of who I am, my grip is being loosened on unhealthy patterns.  Amazing work, often unnerving work, is moving within me.  I have had many moments of profound grace this season as well, and as a result I am being invited into some external and internal places I was quite certain

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. -from Amiel’s Journal, translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward The Novena of Grace is coming to an end today.  This was my first year coordinating this event and so I was unsure of what to expect.  I am

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. -Mark 9:2-3 Today’s gospel reading is of the Transfiguration of Jesus.  A few years ago I wrote an article on beauty which explored certain movements in a spirituality that takes seriously the aesthetic dimension: longing, awakening, seeing, cultivating, and creating.  Those movements are all verbs, because our response to beauty prompts a dynamic process within us. (you can read the whole article here: “Responding