Jesus was born in a messy stable and died during the chaos of Good Friday. His disciples were a motley crew of confused souls. And out of the disorder of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit dared to fashion a church. William John Fitzgerald, a Catholic parish priest for 28 years and author of 100 Cranes: Praying with the Chorus of Creation, sees God at work in the messes and miseries of humankind, bringing about transformation and renewal.
Using snippets of his own poetry, scripture, and illustrations from films (Zorba the Greek, On Golden Pond, Parenthood, Grumpy Old Men, Babette's Feast) Fitzgerald shows how the Holy One meets and moves with us through our experiences of alienation, separation, and woundedness. We are living in an unreal world when we expect perfection in our relationships, on our jobs, or in our churches. The Navajos always make one bad stitch in their blankets since only the Great Spirit is perfect. A spirituality that works in, with, and under our troubles, mistakes, and messiness is a sane and salutary spirituality.