You can lean back and rest in the Word. All else is just procrastination! I was forced to investigate my life early on. My late husband and I were both on the path. Our little girl carried great light and our son is a quiet rational mystic, if there is such a thing!

Laurie learned to read while she was in a children’s hospital. It sounds unbelievable but she learned from the Bible. As she neared her death, she opened her little Bible to one of the pages in the New Testament. She copied a few words of guidance and drew a picture of an angel.

My dear friend and her husband flew Laurie to Philadelphia to go to the shrine of St. John Neumann. There she met an elderly priest, Father John Krimm. He was taken with her and began to pray for her daily. He wrote regularly to her and then to me, after she died. She was, he said, interceding for him in heaven. I gave him the page on which she had written the words and the angel. I regret not making a copy; for some reason I didn’t. The only word I remember is faith.

Back to resting in the Word—it will never leave you or forsake you. And by that, I mean any truth or promise that comes to mind as you sit in the silence. So many passages speak to me now. They are made to be meditated on. If you are able to sit long enough, a certain odor is transferred into your soul. Not a bodily one but an inner fragrance, perhaps like incense or myrrh.

Being patient and still is not the opposite of work. Inner work is demanding and we forget so easily. Yesterday I spent some time cleaning some kitchen cupboards. I washed some crystal that my mother gave me, wanting to pass them on to someone; I do not need them. I am trying to downsize a little at a time and the first of the year I always feel the urge to purge….

We can purge ourselves spiritually, too. What traits in my character are useless to me? I can name at least 3 immediately, but I won’t tell you what they are. Most of you know me and can hazard a guess about at least one of them. So my work (and yours) is cut out for me.

May we lean back and rest in the presence of God off and on all day long. It doesn’t feel spiritual; it just feels like regular old rest. We are human beings set to the task of rising above ourselves. It ain’t easy!

Vicki Woodyard