My faith has become more contemplative over the last several years. Sometimes it’s a challenge, coming from an Evangelical background, to describe how my relationship to God is growing and deepening. It can be difficult to understand and explain; it can be frightening and lonely; it is both draining yet also the source of great joy and peace.
People who know me as an extroverted, get-things-done, results-oriented activist may not understand my desire for silence and solitude. It used to be that whenever I relaxed and took even a few days off, I would start to feel sick. Every time I began a week away from work I would spend several days being sick with a cold or flu. It was like I was allergic to quiet! Now, I listen to people’s stories as a spiritual director, and I even spend time with monks and hermits.
I am discovering for myself the ways in which I am being woken up and transformed by God’s presence and action within me. Often those changes can be overwhelming for me to grasp and put them into tangible words.
Pilgrimage of a Soul is the description by Phileena Heuertz of her story of awakening and transformation. Phileena and her husband Chris organize the movement of Word Made Flesh, an international community of Christians who serve among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor. Several years ago, they were given the gift of sabbatical. Pilgrimage of a Soul tells the story of that time away, and of the changes that it began and fed in her.
Phileena writes openly and movingly about the journey she traveled on during that sabbatical time; and the journey she continues to experience since then. I encourage you to take the time to read what she writes. Her book is like a freshly-baked loaf of whole-grain bread for me; I could hardly wait for the opportunity to taste the next warm piece, and be nourished by it.
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