The Bible presents a landscape rich with characters whose stories and prophecies, wisdom and woes, parables and prayers describe our very human struggle to know and respond to the love of God. Repeated reading and retelling make these texts familiar, and yet we encounter them anew in these fresh, intimate, and sometimes startling reflections by master storyteller Genevieve Glen, OSB. Sr. Genevieve writes with a vivid and poetic imagination. Drawing on her life of monastic prayer and the practice of Lectio Divina—a life saturated in Scripture—she pulls us deeply into these stories. Sauntering through this holy ground with her we enter small villages and busy towns, sheepfolds and gardens, a nomad’s tent and a rich man’s house, a stable in Bethlehem and the great temple in Jerusalem. Most of all we encounter the transforming message and mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

The Bible presents a landscape rich with characters whose stories and prophecies, wisdom and woes, parables and prayers describe our very human struggle to know and respond to the love of God. Repeated reading and retelling make these texts familiar, and yet we encounter them anew in these fresh, intimate, and sometimes startling reflections by master storyteller Genevieve Glen, OSB. Sr. Genevieve writes with a vivid and poetic imagination. Drawing on her life of monastic prayer and the practice of Lectio Divina—a life saturated in Scripture—she pulls us deeply into these stories. Sauntering through this holy ground with her we enter small villages and busy towns, sheepfolds and gardens, a nomad's tent and a rich man's house, a stable in Bethlehem and the great temple in Jerusalem. Most of all we encounter the transforming message and mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

Readers can join the Absurd Sojourns and Spirit-mind quests of the author over a couple of decades in which in two centuries collide. Eternal satirical questions are considered in part one: Can literary giants such as Shakespeare, Hemingway and Faulkner explain why the chicken crossed the road? Is Little Richard the epitome of philosophic simplism? Can dark sibling Forrest Grump find reconciliation and also direct? Can Snake Pleskin escape both Sedona and Iraq? Does the white man's manifest destiny include photo ops with pliant Indians and black kids with watermelons? Can a novice movie reviewer separate bombs and bombshells? Will Christians, Jews and Muslims continue to kill each other with expensive explosives and send us the bill? How can the herdings of cats lead to wealth and fame? And in part two ... humans have a spiritual endowment and personal mission they can't begin to imagine. Is your own personal Truth-Beauty-Goodness your very best religion? Will you consider 21 new spiritual enlightenments for the 21st century? How have slavery, segregation and other acrimonious separations contributed to a malaise of spiritual poverty in the deep South? Are you persuaded by the spiritual realities expressed by a celestial Melchizedek? Did you know that the practice of Stillness can lead to fortuitous contact with spiritual teachers representing our Universal Father? Both parts lift the reader into a philosophical framework that combines perceptive topical humor and a sound path to weave personal spiritual growth into a crazy world.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1859. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.