The National Association of Catholic Chaplains

Menu
  • Membership
      • Apply for Membership
      • Frequently-Asked Questions about Membership
      • Request Retired Membership
      • State Liaisons
      • Newest Members
      • Membership Directory
      • Member map
      • Celebrating Our Members’ 25-year Membership and Certification
      • In Memoriam: deceased NACC members
    • Close
  • Certification
    • Initial Board Certification
      • Board Certified Chaplain (BCC)
      • Certified Associate Chaplain (CAC)
      • Palliative Care and Hospice Advanced Certification (PCHAC)
      • VA Initial Board Certification
      • Recognition of Strategic Partners Board Certification
      • Newly Certified Chaplains
      • Close
    • Renewal of Certification
    • Certification Competencies & Procedures
      • Certification Competencies & Procedures
      • Important Background on NACC Certification Competencies
      • Professional Code of Ethics for Spiritual Care Professionals
      • Certification Commission
      • Certification Appeals Panel
      • Ethics Appeals Panel
      • Close
    • Mentors
    • Recognition of Strategic Partners Board Certification
    • Verifying Certification
    • Maintaining Certification in Retirement
    • Graduate Theological Programs
    • Close
  • Education Resources
      • 2023 Retreat
      • 2023 Webinar Series
      • Recorded webinars (2009-2022)
      • Calendar of Events
      • Graduate Theological Programs
      • CPE Programs
      • NACC Professional Networking Calls
      • Continuing Education Hour Requests – Guidelines and Forms
      • Ongoing Educational Opportunities
      • Local/Regional Gatherings & Events
      • Past Conferences (2004 – 2022)
      • Vision
    • Close
  • Resources
    • Antiracism Resources
    • Administrator Resources
    • Awareness Resources
    • Chaplaincy Care Resources
    • Coronavirus Resources & Updates
    • Job Listings
    • The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling
    • Partners in Pastoral Care
    • Research
    • Specialty Care Resources
    • Spirituality and Prayer Resources
    • Spiritual Care Department Resources
    • Vision
    • Close
  • About NACC
    • About the NACC
      • Mission/Vision/Values
      • Constitution and ByLaws
      • Strategic Plan
      • History
      • Close
    • Annual Awards
    • Association Leadership
      • NACC Board of Directors
      • Committees, Commissions, and Panels
      • National Office Staff
      • Episcopal Advisory Council
      • Close
    • Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition (CPMC)
    • Choose Chaplaincy
    • Health Care Collaborators
    • NACC Merchandise
    • NACC Publications and Documents
      • Vision
      • NACC Now
      • Annual Reports & Financial Reviews
      • Documents and publications
      • NACC Blog
      • Close
    • Partners in Pastoral Care
    • Partners for Professional Excellence in Spiritual Care
    • Vision
    • Close
  • Choose Chaplaincy
  • Contact Us
      • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    • Close
  • Donate Now
  • Member Login
Home » Vision » May-June 2017 » Literary dialogue partner invites reframing of story

Literary dialogue partner invites reframing of story

Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Living: Recognize It, Trust It, Abide in It. Wisdom Publications, Somerville, MA, 2016, 216 pages, $17.95.

By Julianne Dickelman

We spend so much of our lives trying to figure “it” out. We seek the right teachers, the right books, the right spiritual path, the right ministry. We seek peace, enlightenment, oneness with the Divine. What is the source of this yearning? Called by many names, this author refers to that longing in our hearts as grace.

Kathleen Dowling Singh is a bestselling author, Dharma practitioner, and teacher who invites us to engage in spiritual biography, “… a bench to sit and rest in the midst of our journey and take stock of what life has been about.” This is a different exercise than spiritual auto-biography, which she distinguishes as more self (ego)-oriented. A spiritual biography notices “growing illumination” where one is “tracing the awakening of your own essential nature as it comes to know itself as grace.”

Depending on where we are in life, many of us have bumped into that doing, achieving, seeking exhaustion. Singh’s invitation may be attractive: to sit still and remember, to recollect (re-collect) the “transformative shifts” in our lives, to allow a gentle movement from “surviving” toward “surrendering into the stillness of being.”

This book offers itself as a dialogue partner, perhaps a literary version of a chaplain, who sits with you in holy curiosity, asking good questions, inviting you to listen to your story with new ears. Singh uses depth language rooted in her Buddhist practice and draws from the wisdom and mystical traditions of other paths.

She offers us a pattern of “four quarters” as movements of the journey, and reflections from six other spiritual journeyers whose stories, I found, triggered my own recollection of forgotten or discarded memories.

The four quarters include:
(1) Moving from tasting to hunger. What were the moments that led you to search for greater being, for spirit? What were the moments that called you back to limitation, to survival mode?
(2) Seeking to end seeking, from seeking to seeing. What inner obstructions did you bring to the journey and what has been the changing nature of your relationship with them?
(3) Healing into maturity — a deep preference for letting go of what no longer serves us. What practices and experiences have brought you more deeply into your heart?
(4) Ripening. Trust permeates us when we stop believing frightening illusions of separation. What are you grateful for? What do you offer the world?

Why this book for those of us in spiritual care ministries? Perhaps you have already walked a road in northern Spain or entered into St. Teresa’s “interior Castle” and are looking for another provocative, poetic entry point that will allow you to rest in grace. Additionally, you may find the stories, reflections and questions inspiring in your attentive ministry to others’ yearning.

You can listen to an interview with the author on The Wisdom Podcast (February 10, 2017).

Julianne Dickelman, BCC, is a chaplain educator at Providence Healthcare in Spokane, WA.

The National Association of Catholic Chaplains
Become a Member Would you like to get Certified?

Free Publications

Don’t miss the latest news, subscribe to our newsletter today! You don’t have to be a member to subscribe.

National Association of Catholic Chaplains
4915 S. Howell Avenue, Suite 501
Milwaukee, WI 53207
Get Directions

Phone: (414) 483-4898
Fax: (414) 483-6712
Email: info@nacc.org

Our office hours
Mon-Thur 8:00am – 5:00pm Central Time
Friday 8:00am – 12 Noon
Sat-Sun closed

Job Listings

Current job opportunities for chaplains, priests, CPE residents, supervisors, directors of pastoral care, managers, mission directors, and more.

Job Listings

Free Publications

Don’t miss the latest news, subscribe to our newsletter today! You don’t have to be a member to subscribe.

Donate Now

Learn more about making a tax-deductible donation to NACC.

Donate Now

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
© 1997 - 2023 National Association of Catholic Chaplains - Sitemap

Built by Westwords