Whom have I in heaven but you? And having you, I desire nothing upon earth (Psalm 73:25)

All last term, I prayed dutifully for ‘guidance and grace’ for the day in my morning devotions.  One morning, God decided to put a word in edgeways.  ‘What about glory?’ came the subversive thought.  Is that all?  Just guidance and grace?  What about glory, Jane?  Have you given up on that?  This Saturday, 6 August, Christians worldwide celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ, attested in all four Gospels.  Why not read it for yourself?  Choose your favourite synoptic Gospel: Matthew (17: 1-8), Mark (9: 2-8), and Luke (9: 28-36) all describe the scene.  Imagine yourself into the story, go up the mountain with Jesus, Peter, James, and John, and abide there with the disciples as they are awakened from sleep and their eyes are opened to behold the glory of God shining out from Jesus.  Bask in the radiance of that glory and grace.  I have just come back from a week’s individually-guided retreat on the glorious Welsh coast, in a hillside villa belonging to St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre.  The entire arc of Ceredigion (Cardigan) Bay was ever-present in sight and sound, filling every seaward window of the house.  God decided it was time to enlarge my heart, mind and expectations.  Why settle, God asked?  Why settle for a pond, why settle for anything less, when you can have this—when you can have me—the vast, flowing ocean of my love?

Picture: Sunset from the Jesuit Retreat House, Llanaber, Gwynedd, 22 July 2022