Resources for your spiritual journey

Behold Your Life: A Pilgrimage Through Your Memories, by Macrina Wiederkehr, Ave Maria Press, USA, 2000

Reviewed by Bernardina Sontrop SGS

With Lent just around the corner, Macrina Wiederkehr’s book, Behold Your Life, provides a wonderful resource for personal reflection on one’s life journey for the 40-day pilgrimage through Lent. Acknowledging that Lent is a time when we are more conscious of the cross in life, Macrina, invites her readers: “the cross you are to embrace in this prayerful journey is your life, with all its pains and joys” (p.11).

The book begins with an insightful introduction in which the author explains the purpose and structure of the book and the importance of “embracing” the memories that may arise as we engage in the Lenten pilgrimage. She offers the pilgrimage as a way “to reclaim the lost treasures of [our] life in whatever way is necessary” (p.13) so that the reader might “walk into an ever fuller, more abundant life” (p.15).

The reflections for each day focus on a wide variety of topics beginning at the very beginning of our lives and ending with our waiting at the tomb. Each day offers a Scripture text relevant to the topic, a guided meditation to stimulate exploration of memories in our personal life journey and a brief concluding prayer to bring the day’s reflection to a close.

Through each if the reflections readers are invited to take time to ponder the mystery of God’s love as it comes to us in both the joyful and painful memories that may surface and to look upon them with compassion. Reflection on both the blessings and challenges that we have experienced at particular moments in our life journey invites us to grow into deeper self-knowledge and deeper awareness of God’s presence and action in our lives.

At the end of the 40 reflections, Macrina invites those who have completed the pilgrimage to “take up your rekindled life and move into the beautiful ordinariness of daily living … for this is where God lives” (p.111).