“It is one thing to make a pilgrimage to the desert to find God. It is entirely another to be open to finding God where we are… Life is not an exercise in spiritual gymnastics. It is one long, unending attempt to put on the mind of God wherever we are, whatever happens to us on the way. We are not here to pray our way out of life’s challenges. We are here to grow through every one of them into spiritual adulthood. The shrines and special prayers and holy pilgrimages along the way are spiritual oases meant to build our strength for the rest of the way. They are not God; they are simply signs that the God who made us is with us. It is that relationship that counts far beyond any particular devotion.”
–Joan Chittister, In God’s Holy Light: Wisdom from the Desert Monastics
