"I started this meditation on the first day of Lent. I hope to keep                  going every day until Easter. Each day I go fishing in the water of this internal                  voice. This week the water's still, this angled pen a blue sail; the hook is lazy in                  the estuary, the water the color of lapis. So what if I don't catch a fish? I said                  that I would fish; that's all I promised. I bait the hook with each day's                  discipline. I have no guarantees that there is anything at all to catch in these                  particular waters, that something beneath the surface won't grab my pen and pull me                  under." -- from IconographyWhen Susan Neville enrolls in an                  icon-painting class in the cellar of an Indianapolis monastery, she begins a journey                  into a fascinating hidden world where saints are fabricated of mineral and wood,                  yolk and blood, earth and time. The process is tedious, and she begins to make                  mistakes, to become impatient; she doesn't feel ready for the challenge. To prepare                  herself, Neville makes a vow to write during the 40 days of Lent. What emerges is a                  journal, a meditation, a series of confessions that we are invited to listen to as                  we follow Neville's sometimes painful attempts to reveal the truth and discover the                  mystery of her existence. In the layering of colors and moods, her writing is the                  spiritual equivalent of an icon. As she observes the world around her and applies                  the paint of language to her observations, she realizes that spirit and matter are                  not separate -- that now and then moments of meaning emerge from daily life, and the                  stillness and majesty of the universe shine through.

Iconography: A Writer's Meditation PDF

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