"Maybe, I’ll find God in every hill I see for the rest of my life." - Brother Patrick "Franciscan friar Richard Rohr saysthat there are two kinds of time, at least according to the ancient Greeks. There is chronos—or chronological, ordered time—and then there is kairos. Kairos is subjective, qualitative. Deep Time is what Rohr calls it. A fullness, he says. The moments when the dots of our lives connect." - from the notebook of Elijah Iverson, Saint, Sierra Simone Once again this brilliant author has enthralled me, captivated me, and stunned me into what she quoted above…into “Kairos”, that deep sense of time that stretches infinitely. The perception of time that sets our hearts, minds, and souls free from the burdens of our reality shackled by the counting of the hours and the numbering of our days. With this work, she introduces us to the making of a modern day albeit, improbable, “Saint”. She also goes where very few authors would ever dare to go blurring or even perhaps obliterating, the definitions of both the sacred and the profane. While delighting the reader with a tension-filled second chance erotic love story, she explores the depths and heights of a man’s quest for mental wellness, atonement and reconciliation of his love and passion for another man and his need to devote himself completely to a God who revealed Himself to him when he needed His life-saving grace the most. This book spoke to me in a very personal way and on a very personal level. It moved me in deep and meaningful ways. I am thankful to Ms. Simone for not only the entertainment but for the joy of contemplating…of being lost in said contemplation. Unlike Aiden, I do not feel I have been called to be a Saint yet. Not so sure I could answer like he did in this book. “Many gates,” I murmur. It’s what I said to Elijah when I was telling him the story of that night. That there are many gates, but this was the one I chose. “Many gates,” Brother Connor echoes. He makes a fist with his right hand and then brings it against his left palm. One of the opening gestures of his salutations. He looks down at his hands. “I often think that if I’d kept my school, if I’d kept my life the life of a martial artist, that I would probably be the same soul I am today. Practice is practice, whether it’s psalms or stances. There are many gates, as you say. Many ways to the well.” - Brother Connor I do believe I could write an essay after reading this glorious life-affirming book. I am that enthusiastic about all I discovered and rediscovered in my thinking. I realize that this endeavor could make for some tedious reading, so I will stick to three themes that enlightened me the most in Saint. I wonder if the temptation to rush to judgement was strong for some when reading how Aiden felt his sexual love of Elijah, and all that it encompasses was like a prayer…a sacred offering of love. He felt closer to God through this love. I often wonder to myself, if the infinite God who created a universe so vast and abides in all his creation is truly worried about how and to whom one expresses their love? Love itself is the essence of God…in every molecule of our very DNA…in every cell of which comprises our temporal body. “This rigid dichotomy of holy and profane, of vowed and unvowed . . . it sterilizes us. Not everyone fits into those boxes to begin with, almost no one fits entirely into them, and then there are those of us who experience God so differently from what is sanctioned and prescribed that even the mere idea of boxes is . . . ” He looks like he’s searching for the right word here. 'Limiting.'” - Father Jordan While I am on the subject of judgement, it is obvious to me now, but I hardly considered that severe depression includes the harshest ultimate self-judgment of worthlessness. The deft and empathetic words given to Aiden as he described the moment of his personal crisis was insightful and moving. Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44) Aiden was hearing a major lie or perhaps his faulty brain chemistry was the open door for the lie? If his faulty brain chemistry was the open door for the judgmental lie it was also the open door for his calling to come closer to God...to become a Saint. It makes me think about the idea that this “awesome” God who created all and dwells in all creation “knows the number of hairs on your head” ( Matthew 10:30). “You are precious in his sight (Isaiah 43:4). God was with Aiden when he was in crisis. It was the work of God’s angel or angels that he received the unexpected, jarring, life-affirming text. “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways”( Psalm 91:11). I understand that Father Jordan talks to angels. I also understand his story is next in the series. I personally cannot wait. More favorite Quotes: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For Love is strong as Death..."(Song of Songs 8:6) "Elijah claims to write in his notebook but instead mostly just stares at me with his arm wedged behind his head and his mouth curved in a fond smile. It should be distracting, and maybe it is, but it’s wonderful too, like praying next to brightly colored stained glass or in a twisting curl of incense smoke. It makes the prayers deeper and sweeter and even older somehow, like I’m praying something beyond the words of the psalms, like I’m praying what it means to be human in the first place." - Brother Patrick Psalm 121 I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth . . . He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber . . . The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. "I love you like that. I love you like this. I love you like everything." Sierra Simone Priest (Priest, #1) by Sierra Simone Sinner (Priest, #2) by Sierra Simone Midnight Mass (Priest, #1.5) by Sierra Simone Saint (Priest, #3) by Sierra Simone