Richard Broderick is a priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York, currently ministering to "gated communities" in three jails. As coordinator of the Pueblo to People Project of Accompaniment, he travels to Guatemala to link parishes there with parishes in his diocese. This devotional paperback consists of meditations growing out of Broderick's 12-mile retreat in the Adirondack Mountains. This milieu restores his soul and enables him to ponder "quintessential questions that have been composting within."
While savoring the beauty of the Adirondacks, which he calls "a forested cathedral," the author laments suburban sprawl, which "like a lava flow is covering over our dark, soil rich farmlands." He sees this as distress rather than progress. He finds it equally disconcerting to contrast the diversity of nature to the sameness of the landscape created by our consumer culture.
While communing with the natural world, Broderick realizes that his trek has been a pilgrimage, a chance to deepen his faith in God and the mysteries of the human adventure. It helps him see that his spirituality rests on three pillars: (1) an awareness that religious experiences are mediated through the senses, (2) the challenge of living both passionately and compassionately, and (3) the practice of solidarity with others. Broderick's experiences in "a forested cathedral" enable us to see the pilgrimages we could take in our neighborhood or backyard.
