Bethany House as Chrysalis by Trustee Katie Rimer

“Suspended upside down in the heart of the question, we touch the sacred spaces of real becoming.”  -Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits

I discovered Sue Monk Kidd’s memoir in the mid-1990s while working on Capitol Hill. The contrast between my shiny job in the U.S. House of Representatives and the year I had just spent working with impoverished families in Bogota, Colombia, had me spiritually disoriented.  Kidd’s meditation about passionate waiting on God during seasons of not knowing shaped the posture of my heart.   The idea of active waiting - not passive - forged my capacity to sit with holy questions and sense that God was at work.  Kidd taught me that just as a chrysalis contains the transformation of a butterfly, so too my heart can bring forth new life, with the right intention, the right action, and God’s grace.   

I have returned to this metaphor of the chrysalis and the butterfly during this season of transition at Bethany House of Prayer. In conversations with the Sisters of St. Anne, the Colleagues and the Board of Trustees, I have watched us listen deeply to each other, clarify roles, reaffirm our covenants, and shore up the ‘container’ of Bethany House of Prayer.  Together we have renewed and deepened our capacity to be a place of refuge for those who come to Bethany House to rekindle their connection to God.  We have trusted God’s good work deep in the spirit of this place as we prepare to call a new Executive Director.   

Already new life presses forward:  in the hiring of Alice Killian as Office Administrator and Retreat House Manager, in the Colleague leadership provided by Christi Humphrey, Kimberly Green, and Kathleen Hirsch, in the abiding generosity of the Sisters, in the wise stewardship by the Board, in the careful, fertile work of the Search Committee.  The Colleagues are gathering for an in-person retreat in November and will welcome the larger community during Advent. Retreat groups continue to access our beautiful spaces. The Transition Committee meets faithfully each week, and the ongoing Contemplative Prayer, Worship, Spiritual Direction, Writing and Hospitality ministries nurture the souls of those who attend. 

Together we have waited passionately on God in prayer and action so that others who come to Bethany House can do the same, as they always have, confident that the ‘chrysalis’ of Bethany House of Prayer can hold them.   Thank you for participating in this holy work, for trusting the process and for believing in the promise of new wings.

Kidd, Sue Monk. 1990. When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions. San Francisco: Harper & Row.