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A Journey of Sea and Stone

How Holy Places Guide and Renew Us

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Over the last twenty years spiritual director, teacher, and pilgrim Tracy Balzer has made more than a dozen transatlantic visits to Scotland's Isle of Iona, welcoming the hallowed spaces of the island to sculpt, bend, and sustain her spiritually. "It might be said that Iona has been my spiritual director," says Balzer, for with each visit she is freshly confronted by key questions of faith: Where is God? Who am I? What can I offer the world?

Set against the backdrop of Iona's deep Christian history and exquisite natural beauty, A Journey of Sea and Stone explores these questions, prompting each of us to reach for meaning in our daily lives and to consider the myriad ways God might be inviting us into something new. Tapping our innate desire to seek and find, to encounter God in creation and in the history of faithful people, Balzer guides us in our own journeys to cultivate and find sustenance and connection in sacred spaces.

Deep passages of reflection are complemented by rich illustrations reflecting the island's stunning terrain and Celtic heritage, providing spiritual seekers and armchair travelers a fresh entrée into the world of the sacred, wherever they may be.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 3, 2021
      In this glowing testament, Balzer (Permission to Ponder), founder of a spiritual travel company, composes a love letter to the Scottish island of Iona, a place that has given her “space to listen to the voice of God and to my own soul.” Iona is a “thin place,” she writes, where “the dividing line between heaven and earth can seem as thin as tissue paper.” Each chapter reflects on a lesson illustrated by life on the island, including how a stone tumbling in rough water eventually becomes smooth (“each of us is vulnerable to the great tension and friction that is part of this temporal life on earth”) and the enriching nature of hospitality (“sometimes the most hospitable thing we can do is allow someone else to show hospitality to us”). Each chapter ends with questions readers might consider to enrich their own spiritual lives, such as “who in your life has served as an example of courage in the face of fear?” Throughout, Balzer gently urges readers to “use the beauty and historical significance of holy places... for more authenticity in our spiritual lives.” Christian naturalists will relish this.

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  • English

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