Using the metaphor of pilgrimage, this book invites readers to reflect on living with illness. The heart of the book is a collection of 30 meditations, each followed by a reflection, a short prayer, and a suggested spiritual practice. The meditations voice the difficulties and the challenges of living with illness, and call the reader toward a deepening understanding, compassion and generosity. While the meditations intend to offer comfort, they are also written from the conviction that God invites us to grow even in these circumstances. When living with chronic, terminal, or progressive illness, discovering a way to pray can be quite a challenge. These 30 meditations provide a welcome means with practices inspired by the psalms. “This rich, wise, and comforting guide for those living with illness is a handbook of deep knowledge gleaned through lived experience. It is a blend of realism and humility, of questions and mystery – all delivered with Mary’s simple yet elegant style. She unmasks many illusions and reminds us that though our lives are ‘short and uncertain,’ there is unfathomable power each time we realize that we have another day.” ―Paula D’Arcy, author of Gift of the Red Bird and Waking Up to This Day "...it's a valuable one for those who are ill, and their caregivers…Caregivers and patients both, could find Days of Grace helpful." ―Lois Sibley "Mary Earle knows that life is gift. Her words call us to the way of gratitude. Mary Earle also knows that life is gift shrouded in pain. Her words call us to the journey of grace. Both are essential. In Days of Grace Mary Earle wisely weaves them as one." "This down-to-earth and spiritually rich collection of meditations, prayers, and practices will speak poignantly to the hearts, minds, and souls of all those suffering from chronic, progressive, or terminal illnesses. Earle's own experience of suffering and pain makes her an authentic and compassionate guide to the far country of disease and debilitation. This brief book is a small treasure that deserves a large audience: it is in its own special way good medicine." "Mary Earle has helped so many find a holy path through that curious daily combination of ferocity and tedium that makes up a life of chronic illness. God be thanked for the light these thoughtful essays shine on it." Mary C. Earle is a poet, author, and spiritual director, who taught at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. She has written ten books about spirituality. Her titles include Marvelously Made, Days of Grace, The Desert Mothers, and Broken Body, Healing Spirit. She resides in San Antonio, Texas. Phyllis Tickle (1934–2015) was an authority on religion in America and a much sought after lecturer on the subject. Founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, she has been frequently quoted by media sources including USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, PBS, NPR, the Hallmark Channel, plus innumerable blogs and websites. In addition to lectures and numerous essays, articles, and interviews, Tickle is the author of over two dozen books in religion and spirituality, including The Great Emergence, How Christianity is Changing and Why, and The Words of Jesus, A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord. DAYS OF GRACE Meditations and Practices for Living with Illness By Mary C. Earle Morehouse Publishing Copyright © 2009 Mary C. Earle All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8192-2364-7 Contents Chapter One Day One * * * You will show me the path of life. Psalm 16:11 If you are reading this meditation, in all probability you are learning to live with illness. Your illness may be chronic or progressive or terminal. Whatever the case, you are entering a school of experience for which our culture offers little wisdom. You are seeking to find a way to live with the stresses and the discomforts of a body that is somehow weakened. You are trying to live within new limitations. You are also coming face-to-face with the fact of your own mortality. The wisdom tradition of Scripture tells us that this kind of experience, as harsh and painful as it may be, also offers us the opportunity to come to terms with reality. We begin to remember that we are creatures. We begin to recognize that our lives are fragile and that our bodies can suffer from many different maladies. We begin to reorient and reframe our lives, within a new context— a context of difficult days and unexpected physical disruption. And we may begin to ask deeper questions about meaning and about life, about death and about eternity. When we ask those questions, we are beginning to take the first steps on a path of life. We are beginning to live at a deeper level, though it may not be the path we would have chosen had illness not intervened. Prayer Gracious God, in whom I live and move and have my being, as I learn to live with this illness, may I be open to your prese