I love that Brother Lawrence's conversion was accomplished through nothing more than noticing a tree stripped of its leaves in winter. He is like the Zen master who reaches enlightenment when a tile falls off the roof. Of course, for Brother Lawrence the tree is an image of resurrection - the repeated nature of resurrection … Continue reading A Tree Stripped of Its Leaves
Author: KPB Stevens
Practicing the Presence of God
I have been working on a series of images to accompany Brother Lawrence's Practicing the Presence of God. Here in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, we're planning a series of retreats that are based on Brother Lawrence's life and letters. It has been a joy to spend so much time with this great saint and mystic, … Continue reading Practicing the Presence of God
Moses and the Thorns
Since I started work on the Exodus Big Read with my friends in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, I've been struggling to make a good piece of art that depicts Moses and the Burning Bush. The story is at once too small and too huge. Too small because there's not a lot of action - … Continue reading Moses and the Thorns
Out of the Depths
I first encountered the 130th Psalm when I took a class entitled Exile & Pilgrimage at Kenyon College. Don Rogan, my professor, who later became my friend and mentor, had us read Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, the desperate letter to his lover that he wrote while imprisoned for sodomy. Wilde's small book takes its name from … Continue reading Out of the Depths
From the Dark Tower
"We shall not always plant while others reap." This is the first line of Countee Cullen's poem "From the Dark Tower." I first read the poem last year, during the election and after having been active in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Cullen wrote the poem at the height of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The … Continue reading From the Dark Tower
KPB Stevens 