Tag Archives: Nan C. Merrill
Encompassed with Love
Hi fellow pilgrims, In the next five posts, I will share with you some of what I experienced on my eight-day retreat. I will be posting them on Mondays and Fridays from now until August 17. As you begin, I … Continue reading →
Cracked Open: Part One
“I’d like you to begin the retreat by praying with Psalm 139,” said Edmund, the young Jesuit who was my spiritual director for the eight days I spent alone with God. My room at Carmel Hill Formation House in Deroche opened … Continue reading →
“Oh, No!”
When our grandson, Hadrian, was a preschooler, he loved to line up his toy cars on the coffee table. He and his dad would drive them around imitating the sounds of engines starting, horns beeping and tires squealing. Inevitably, they would drive a car over … Continue reading →
A Deep Wisdom
Publishing the posts Being “That Woman” and God in the Dark: Theory left me feeling quite vulnerable to people’s reactions. Reason reminded me that God was with me, and I would be fine. But the little girl in me saw thick walls of … Continue reading →
On This Mountain
Last week I talked about deadlines closing in on me. One of them was SoulStream’s Living from the Heart course. It would be my first time co-facilitating a six-day intensive in spiritual formation, and I wanted to prepare well for it. Shortly before I … Continue reading →
Night Crossing
Imagine you are in your favourite place, the instructions for the prayer read. Perhaps it is on a beach or in a cosy cabin. What do you see, hear, feel, taste, smell? Are you alone or with others? After you have relaxed … Continue reading →
Love Speaks to Me about Food
The voice I would listen to spoke to me about my relationship with food. Before we left on vacation, I discovered Geneen Roth’s book Women, Food and God. In it Roth talks about the guidelines for eating that have transformed her life. Instead of … Continue reading →
God Is in Love with You
“Ask Christians what they believe about God,” David Benner writes in Surrender to Love, “and most have a good deal to say. However, ask the same people what they know about God from direct personal experience, and most will have … Continue reading →
Resisting the Sirens
I remember the first time I identified the delicious desire to disappear. I felt enticed to float away into another world where nothing was expected of me. Sirens,* born of innocent angst, sang to me from the shore. They continue to … Continue reading →
Settling Accounts With My Fears
I hang up the phone and bite my lip. Did I say too much? Push too hard? Why did she have to hang up so suddenly? I took a risk and challenged her perspective; now I fear the worst. I’m … Continue reading →
