Published on Substack on June 1, 2023 I have a story I tell about my own spiritual awakening. I was seventeen, and on a family vacation. We had driven from Wisconsin across the southwest, and all during the trip I had been moved by profound natural beauty. After a stop in Los Angeles, we drove … Continue reading Two Early Encounters with the Divine
Author: KPB Stevens
A Priest at the End of Christendom
Published May 22, 2023 on Substack “I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to reform the church. I just need to love people.” This is what I said when interviewing for my current position as the rector of a small, urban Episcopal church in the midwest. Eight years before I had begun working for … Continue reading A Priest at the End of Christendom
Saint Peter Returns to the Garden
Unless a Grain of Wheat, India ink and pastel on paper St. Peter Returns to the Garden by KPB Stevens God of calloused hands, like splinters, like wooden bowls full of dinner, I returned here with morning, wanting to return to that last evening we spent together, all of us in a shadowed room, our … Continue reading Saint Peter Returns to the Garden
A Little Flower from St. Teresa
Florilegium, or "little flowers," were small sayings from scripture or from saints and mystics that were illuminated and placed in Medieval prayer books. I drew this image in my sketchbook (and drawing for me is a form of prayer) using India ink. I don't pencil things in first, I just try to cooperate with the … Continue reading A Little Flower from St. Teresa
Station Seven, Jesus Dies on the Cross
Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After … Continue reading Station Seven, Jesus Dies on the Cross
KPB Stevens 