"As with so many of our 'landscapes', caves have many faces. They can be places that shelter us, and also places that challenge us and call us to go beyond our present limits. They can be places where we hide from what assails us, and also places to which we can withdraw to gather strength and new resolve. They can be places where we are deafened by the tumult of the storms around us, or silenced into that quietness of heart where we can truly hear the 'still small voice of calm'. They can be places where we feel we may starve to death, and places where we discover unexpected nourishment. They are places where we grieve for all we have loved and lost, and places where healing can begin. The cave invites us into our own innermost being. It's a risky and arduous journey, and one that may daunt us with its loneliness and gaunt dark spaces. But the pearl at the heart of the cave's oyster is that we discover, if we truly journey to the core of our being, that this is precisely where we encounter the living God."