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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/568e3dd8a0c0084268b9babc93bad224.pdf
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Text
A Family Christmas Prayer
Richard A. Rhem
Christmas, 2013
O God,
Mystery beyond us,
Mystery within us,
Sacred Presence enveloping our lives
in all that is good and true and beautiful,
we are gathered here in this home
we have loved for over 30 years
as a family first formed forty-one years ago
on Christmas.
We remember the little church,
the tree, the poinsettias, the reception at the Brysons
in their warm and lovely home
and can hardly believe
we have shared forty-one Christmases as a family,
grown from eight to twenty-six –
a family we treasure,
so warm, so caring –
simply Love embodied.
Today we welcome Robbie into the embrace of this family
as he and Sarah dream a future together.
And today Richard is in the circle,
having been given a place in Dan and Susan’s family,
welcomed by Dani, Sarah and Sam.
Gathered here,
we hold in our hearts those absent from us:
Katie, Jonathan and Brenda, Joseph and family.
How blessed we are.
In these moments, O God,
we know that the Christmas story is true.
It goes to the heart
of what is truly human, truly divine –
Love and Joy and Peace,
the Light that scatters the darkness,
a vision of an alternative world
that can find expression in nothing less than
a choir of angels singing,
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace.”
�Once a year this annual festival calls us
to stop, to reflect,
to penetrate the mists of our muddled thinking,
so caught up with matters of only passing concern,
to see what is truly ultimate,
what truly matters,
what is finally true –
that vulnerability invites trust,
that humility invites embrace,
that love begets love.
O God,
we worship and adore
in the Presence of the Christmas Babe.
Amen.
�
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Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Event
A Prayer at a Rhem Family Gathering
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RA-1-20131225
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2013-12-25
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Text
Title
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A Family Christmas Prayer
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Richard A. Rhem
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eng
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An account of the resource
Prayer created, delivered, or published by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 25, 2013 entitled "A Family Christmas Prayer", on the occasion of A Prayer at a Rhem Family Gathering. Tags: Prayer, Christmas, Family, Presence of God, Love.
Format
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application/pdf
Christmas
Family
Love
Prayer
Presence of God
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fc7aab70eab7737a64cb1ff24e2b0143.pdf
9f13becf1aa9ced24403c50169eaef2c
PDF Text
Text
Birth: The Way Home
From the Advent series: Home
Text: John 1:12-13; John 3:3
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Christmas Day, December 25, 1994
Transcription of the spoken sermon
In his poem, “For The Time Being,” W. H. Auden writes, “Nothing can save us
that is possible. We who must die demand a miracle,” and so we do. The Advent
theme of “Home” culminates today as we note that birth is the way home. And
birth is a miracle. Birth is not a human possibility; it is the gift of God. Not this
morning that we celebrate the literal birth of the Christ Child, but the birth that
the Christ Child pointed to and made available to us: that birth from above, or
being born again as it is popularly referred to. It is that birth and only that birth
which is the way home. We’ve noted the yearning for home in the human heart.
Last week we established the impossibility of home, the impossibility as a human
possibility. But let me celebrate with you this morning the reality of spiritual
birth—that new birth which is the gift of God. It is that miracle that we who must
die demand, for nothing humanly possible can save us.
New birth – that’s the way that John describes it in the Christmas story that he
tells, which is not with all the familiar accouterments of stars and angels and
bright shining song, but rather in a cosmic eternal drama. In the prologue to his
story of Jesus, he begins in the beginning, in fact before the beginning. He says,
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” Then he tells how that Word was in human history, in the history of that
special people that God had called. But that Word, coming to his own, was not
received. “He came to his own, but they received him not.” But there were a few,
John tells us. Some received him and some believed, and to them he gave power
to become the children of God. John is very clear that that is not a human
possibility, for he stresses that those who believed in his name were born not of
the blood or of the flesh, or of human will, but of God. For birth, the way home, is
not a human possibility. It is God’s gift and it is all of grace.
In order to explicate the themes of his prologue, John tells us in the third chapter
the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a respected leader in Israel, a rabbi, a
great teacher. Nicodemus was curious about this one Jesus who had caused such
a stir and to whom the common people listened gladly. He came to him by night
to learn the secret of that spiritual reality, that world that seemed so foreign to
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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Nicodemus. Jesus said to him, “You must be born from above.” And Nicodemus,
as the foil for this mysterious teaching, says “How can one enter a second time
into his mother’s womb?” Jesus replies, “I’m not talking about literal physical
birth. I am talking about that miracle that happens to one. That miracle that no
one can manipulate and no one can force that is not at our disposal. I’m talking
about that birth from above, where the breath or the wind of the Spirit of God
blows where it wills. You see the effects of it, but you don’t know whence it comes
of whither it goes; the mystery of the movement of God who has invaded our
space and our time in the miracle of the Word become flesh, whose Spirit
continues to riffle our hearts and create newness within us.” Nicodemus probably
stands for the classical, institutional religion, that institutional religion which is
so very valuable because it keeps the story alive and it continues in a community
like this where the story is cared for and nurtured, and where the rituals are
enacted, and where we baptize children, and take bread and cup. The
institutional religion is so very important because the Spirit always needs form.
But Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus made it very clear that
institutional religion and ritual and form such as we are all participating in is not
an end in itself, but only a means to an end. And, the end in itself is new birth. It
is a spiritual life. It is newness that is created that comes upon us silently,
mysteriously; that new spiritual reality that opens up whole new worlds before us
and brings us home wherever we are in whatever circumstance. When one has
been born from above, one is birthed into a whole new reality and that is the end
of Christmas. That is the end of incarnation. And that is the glad Good News that
has come to the world in the birth of one who said, “You must be born again.”
To be born again. That phrase has entered into popular terminology in our day,
hasn’t it? Wasn’t it Jimmy Carter who in his presidential campaign brought the
term to common usage? I think perhaps it was, and since that time don’t I
remember a cover on Time Magazine some years ago that talked about the “Born
Again” phenomena. Since it has become so popular, everybody gets ‘born’d again’
now and again—athletes, celebrities; any kind of a peak experience is now
referred to in common parlance as being ‘born again.’ Of course, when that
happens it tends to drain such an ideal, or such a reality, of its deep spiritual
meaning. Yet, maybe the very usage of the term is the way people at large get the
idea that it dawns upon them that there is something more than just getting up in
the morning and going to work and coming home and going to bed to get up in
the morning . . . and all of the routine of our ordinary days where we can live such
one-dimensional lives, unaware of rumors of angels and intimations of
transcendence. Maybe the fact that being ‘born again’ has entered into common
parlance is a sign that people are becoming aware, that there is another whole
world and the possibility of newness into which one might be created.
Nicodemus, thank God, I think had the experience because if you read further on
in John’s Gospel (after the crucifixion as a matter of fact), you’ll find that it was
Nicodemus, along with Joseph of Arimathea, that took down the body of Jesus
© Grand Valley State University
�Birth: The Way Home
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
and embalmed it an put spices upon it and laid Jesus to rest—at some great risk,
of course. We are told also by John that there were many of the leaders who
believed in Jesus but secretly, daring not to say anything because they loved the
honor of men rather than the glory of God. I think Nicodemus had the
experience, and it wasn’t something that was contrary to the ways of a great
religious teacher in Israel, a great rabbi, but it was something more . . . more than
just the institutional forms, more than just the thing in itself and the practice of
religion. I think Nicodemus as an old man experienced new birth, and that’s the
wonderful possibility, and it’s the promise of Christmas. And it’s the promise for
all of us as well in our day.
We live in a most exciting time. We live in an age of transition. When did it
begin? I don’t know exactly. When will something jell? I am not at all sure, but
we’re living in a hinge period. We are living in a fascinating time, and for some a
very anxious time, because some of the old forms and structures have been
shaken a bit. Some of the foundations are crumbling a bit. You see, a culture goes
along on its way rather thoughtlessly and almost automatically for a long time,
maybe centuries. Then the myths and the ideas and the common assumptions
that are held by everyone lose their grip on the human imagination. People begin
to think that perhaps there’s something other, and perhaps it is that there are
angels that hover about and send messages, perhaps in the intuition and the
depths of the human being. Then old ways are questioned and institutions begin
to falter, and the guardians of the law, and the guardians of the old tradition hang
on with desperate clutching fear, trying to buoy up structures that no longer will
carry the freight. We live in such a time as that.
There are a lot of people that are afraid and are anxious. You always at times like
that hear the cry that we ought to go back to a former day. Nostalgia fills the air
as though there really were “good old days.” If we really describe the “good old
days” we would find that we’ve moved a long way beyond those “good old days,”
those common assumptions that everyone took for granted. We live in a day
when there are many people and whole nations, and whole groups of people that
are coming to consciousness and to self-awareness and are saying, “We too are
human. Look at us. Give us our day, our ‘place in the sun.’ ” We live in a day that
is full of the rising of expectation and of dreams and desires. We live in a time
when the old ways simply won’t do it any more. It’s a time of transition. It’s a
fascinating time.
The cover story in Newsweek Magazine, November 28, 1994,“The Search For
The Sacred,” gives accounts of all kinds of people who are searching for
something that, perhaps without their knowing it, has been born from above. A
spirit has taken hold of them and they are simply not satisfied any more to live in
that old way, some of them very successful in the old way of the world, the
commonly accepted way. Some of them are getting ‘off the trolley’ as it were and
simply saying, “There must be more.” They must have had a sense of angels and
intimations of eternity coming to birth in their heart. Some of them are seeking
© Grand Valley State University
�Birth: The Way Home
Richard A. Rhem
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that spiritual reality in the most bizarre fashion. But we live in a day in which
there is a widespread and general spiritual awakening.
I want to say that very clearly because we hear so much of the opposite. We hear
so much that denigrates our present day, that there is so much wrong with our
world, and that society is so filled with ills and all of that negative talk. God
knows there are enough problems to deal with in the social structure of our
society and our world, but I believe that Christ has come and light has come, and
the yeast of the Spirit is continuing to permeate the history of humankind. And I
believe that we live in one of the most fascinating times that it has ever been
possible for anyone to live. We live in a time where spiritual openness and
curiosity and sensitivity have emerged, such as have never been known before. I
do believe that. When you have a news magazine covering this spiritual quest of a
multitude of people in great diversity, then you know that there is something
afoot in the world. There is so much in the dreams of humankind spoken by the
poets in great beauty with all kinds of images that the world has never yet
realized. Will we always simply live with dreams and never come to reality? Or
will those dreams, will the poets finally get through to the marrow of our bones?
Will this world be transformed one day? Oh, not in a superficial optimism, but
look about you. Recognize that you have brothers and sisters around this world
who are not satisfied any longer to live in a closed world, one story with no
angels, no transcendence, no love at the core of things, no beating of the heart to
the needs of the other, those who would simply dominate rather than build
community.
We live in a fascinating day. There are great possibilities in our day as we stand at
the edge of the future, the third millennium, a time that seems to bring out the
fear and anxiety of people, but rather ought to be for us an invitation to invite the
newness that is created by the eternal Spirit of God. Home is through birth. It is
not a human possibility. But, by God, it happens here and there, and it is
happening, and I believe it will happen in widespread fashion as the millennium
comes around. It’s a wonderful time in which to be alive.
For example, I think there are people all over in different religious traditions who
are beginning to wake up to one another. We live in a decade that is on the edge
of the third millennium. I do believe that the next millennium will be not a
millennium of religious absolutism, but of a pluralism that is open to the other,
where we share the spiritual riches and the endowments that we have all
received, where together we grow into a greater understanding of the reality of
life and the depths of love. This is a world in which a statesman such as Vaclav
Havel of Czechoslovakia calls on world leaders to wake up to the spiritual reality
and to build a global world community, which is obviously necessary. This is a
day in which to come alive to the riches of our own tradition, to be ready to share
them, and to be ready as well to receive the riches of others – rather than closing
ourselves off, opening ourselves up to the reality of spirituality that is being
© Grand Valley State University
�Birth: The Way Home
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
created by the one true God who has come to us, sharp focused in the face of
Jesus Christ.
Or, if you want to go into another area, the area of the sciences. If you would trace
as you’ve heard me say many times, the history of the science of physics, you
would find that, in the wake of new physical theory, there has always been a
breakthrough in theological understanding. It was in the rise of the Age of
Reason, the Modern Age, the Enlightenment, with Newtonian physics that we’ve
got this closed cause and effect universe. And rationalism dominated the scene.
The human mind was the measure of truth and reality. Then along comes an
Einstein with his Theory of Relativity that I don’t understand, but which I know
really threw a wrench into the Newtonian machine that had so neatly described
reality. Then, of course, building on Einstein was Niels Bohr, the Scandinavian,
the Danish physicist, who comes up with Quantum Theory. He and Einstein were
friends but toward the end of their life they couldn’t communicate any more
because Einstein couldn’t quite go along with the indeterminacy, the
unpredictability, the randomness, the mystery of this physical universe. Einstein
said of God, “The Old Man doesn’t play dice.” Bohr said, “Oh yes, the Old Man
does. This world is filled with more potential, more infinite possibility than any
predictability on the part of anyone who has yet thought about these things.”
Then if you read the implications of Quantum physics you know about the
possibility of parallel universes. We hear of black holes and no one knows what
black holes are, but what if you could go through a black hole and find yourself in
another whole universe through a time warp, in another whole age, in another
whole reality? You think that’s poppy cock?
It’s the stuff of science fiction and the stuff of science fiction usually is the prelude
to what everybody knows in another century or two. There will be a day when our
enlightenment thought, our heavy rationalism, our bowing down to the God of
human reason will look so shoddy and so shabby, we’ll laugh at our silly
smallness in the light of the infinity of the universe that has been created by the
Eternal God who can never be defined and will never be brought into a corner.
This God who creates and continues to create in an expanding universe whose
deepest minds, probing it, stand in wonder of it all. There is more wonder and
awe in the natural sciences today than in those of us who are people of the Book,
who know it all, have it all wrapped, all sealed up, and have the definitions down
pat.
No, home is a way of birth. Home comes by opening oneself up to a miracle. It
comes silently. It comes unpredictably. It comes without being able to demand it.
It comes . . . and when it comes . . . and when it has happened . . . one says, “Oh,
my God! I never would have thought . . .” and then all of our hopes and dreams
and all of our creeds and scientific propositions are like child’s play in the face of
the reality that breaks through and comes within our grasp. Ah! It’s a fascinating
time in which to be the people of God. It’s a fascinating time to acknowledge the
© Grand Valley State University
�Birth: The Way Home
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
possibility of new birth, of being born from beyond ourselves, of being born into
newness such as we’ve never yet dreamed of.
I want to interrupt this sermon with a commercial. I want to tell you that you
have a Team whose quartet of voices are ready to lead you into the newness and
the excitement that lies beyond the horizon. You have in Colette one whose faith
formation will tell the children the “Old, Old Stories” with question and wonder
and awe, so that the children we baptize will know the stories that have shaped
us. Then you have, in our young friend Bob, one who will care for you and also
challenge you and lead you into social engagement in order that the world of
which the prophets dreamed where lion and lamb will lie down together, where
they would beat swords into plow shares and spears into pruning hooks, where
they would learn war no more, where they would not hurt nor destroy in all God’s
holy mountain not because of an enforced Roman peace, but because of justice
and equity and compassion and community – you have in young Bob Kleinheksel
one who will lead you to the edge and push you over. And if you are hungry, if you
are looking for something more, if you would see a rift in the heavens, if you
would be born again, come to Peter who will lead you with prayer and
meditation, and a cultivation of a spirituality which is the wave of the future
where we are all going. And I . . . I hope, simply, to skid into the next millennium
on their coattails.
This is a wonderful day in which to be alive. Nothing can save us that is possible.
We who must die demand a miracle. And the miracle has happened. It happens
and one breathes deeply and everything so familiar and known and ordinary is
transformed with a radiance that shines out of the depths of eternity. The light
has come for those who have eyes to see it. The Word has been enfleshed in those
who would touch it . . . for just a moment.
For just a moment let’s have the lights dimmed. The evangelical church has
missed the point so often because it has said that if you would believe, or if you
would assent to this, or if you would have faith you would be born again. It’s
backwards. Being born again is not a human possibility. It is not the end of some
human effort. It is not the will of the flesh or human will. It is of God. But in just a
moment or two, be open to the miracle. Just breathe deeply, for who knows, there
could be in this moment the intersection of eternity with time, and the likes of us
might be born from above.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5602ab8006105ca2be395c30f23cc4f1.mp3
e5d450ab7aafd6dbe73cd9732743cd25
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Christmas Day
Scripture Text
John 1:12-13, John 3:3
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19941225
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994-12-25
Title
A name given to the resource
Birth the Way Home
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on December 25, 1994 entitled "Birth the Way Home", on the occasion of Christmas Day, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:12-13, John 3:3.
Christmas
Incarnation
Mystery
Spiritual Quest
Transforming Grace