Winding through the labyrinth
A free mini-retreat to pair with the pilgrimage series + good reads on love’s shades
Thrilled how many of you have become paid subscribers to join us for I AM: A Pilgrimage Through Lent. This 7-week series of Scripture, essays, prayers, and practices will start on March 8th, so sign up by then so you don’t miss it. Details here:
Want an extra bonus? Erica Tighe Campbell at Be A Heart is offering a free gift to all who are taking part in this Lenten offering: a free “Pilgrims of Hope” calendar, featuring one pilgrimage site for each month of 2025. I’ll send out the coupon code to paid subscribers with their next regular essay (hint: I love how this essay has come together, so it’s coming to you in time for Valentine’s Day). Huge thanks to Erica for her generosity & ongoing support of The Holy Labor!
While we’re pilgrimaging through Lent, check out my latest free virtual retreat with Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center on the labyrinth: Walking through Lent + Holy Week.
Part I | Walking Through Lent | Thurs., February 27th | 12–1:15pm ET | Zoom
Our faith gives us an opportunity to delve into ancient spiritual practices that awaken in us a new way to walk through Lent. Learn about the history of the labyrinth in the Church and its modern use as a place and practice of prayer. We’ll look at Lent as a time to walk with God and explore 5 ways to use the labyrinth with Scripture and prayer to guide our 40 days of preparation for Easter.
Part II | Walking Through Holy Week | Thurs., April 10th | 12–1:15pm ET | Zoom
What if we could journey through the Triduum in a whole new way this year, guided by the wisdom of the labyrinth? We’ll walk through each day of Holy Week, finding God in new places from Palm Sunday through Easter. Join us to learn how the labyrinth can lead us into the center of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.
This holy way of walking the labyrinth will pair perfectly with the pilgrimage series I’m offering (almost like I planned it?! like pilgrimage + labyrinth were both spiritual practices grounded in nature that brought me healing during cancer, and so they are part of the new book I’m writing?). Sign up for the free mini-retreat here.
If you’re weathering brutal sub-zero weather in Minnesota, let me recommend A Midsummer Night’s Dream currently playing at the Guthrie Theatre. Grateful to my friend Kirby for taking me to the best Shakespeare production I’ve seen in decades. Laughed, cried, left with renewed love for love.
“This is the mystery of love’s many hues, how time and tragedy deepen the once-bright days. We will live in this shade now, the chiaroscuro. We cannot pull the colors apart. But there is beauty here, too—a richness, a depth, a ripening. You come home to me again, and you pull me close as the children shout and dinner bubbles over on the stove, both of us laughing with wrinkled eyes. You kiss me like we are twenty-one again, and in a flash everything shines full around us. What we need—in the dark, in the light—is here.” Read the full piece here: The Shades of Love.
My friend
introduced me to this breathtaking essay, a flash non-fiction masterpiece: The Shape of Emptiness by Brenda Miller at Brevity Magazine. For teachers, for students, for grievers, for artists, for anyone trying to make sense of this life we share. A love story.