by Edna McGrew

THIS BOOK HAS BEEN HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

• Integral Institute founder, KEN WILBER, posted Edna's Chapter Eleven, Physicists and Mystics, on his blog, Integral Naked. DEEPAK CHOPRA says of him: "I read KEN WILBER every day so that I can be inspired by the most extraordinary mind of our times."

• "I have read Its Light Is the Lamb including Chapter Eleven, Physicists and Mystics, twice. I found the book to be very interesting and thought-provoking. Nearly every page contained something new for me to think about."
  DR. JOHN U. TREFNY, President Emeritus, Colorado School of Mines.

• "This book opens new horizons and brings light to a number of religious issues."
  REV. JOHN B. WANG, Ph. D., J.U.D.

PREFACE

When I was 18, I entered Mt. St. Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Mass. It had just opened as the first Cistercian (Trappist) abbey for women in the United States. Surprisingly, I knew nothing about mystical contemplation when I entered. I simply felt that it was God's Will that I become a Cistercian nun. However, when I left over two years later because of an erroneous x-ray diagnosis, I not only knew something about contemplation, but, from that point on for the rest of my adult life, I felt a call to contemplative prayer.

This book is the story of my contemplative journey, which was revitalized after I took early retirement. It is also a testimonial to four people who helped me on this spiritual journey. These include: Sister Nancy Mullen, who resides in Long Island, New York, USA; Dr. Gianna Talone-Sullivan of Emmitsburg, Maryland, USA; Mrs. Vassula Ryden, the Greek Orthodox mystic who presently resides in the USA; and lastly, Father Thomas Keating, mystic, author, former Cistercian Abbot, and founder of Contemplative Outreach, presently residing in St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, USA.

INTRODUCTION

When I was a pre-teen, during World War II, I kept hearing everyone say that "we were fighting a war to end all wars!" I was young and optimistic; and I believed that our civilization was rapidly advancing to a point where wars would be limited and occur mostly in third world countries. However, a few years after World War II ended, America was again fighting a war, the Korean war. This was followed by the Vietnam War and the Gulf War! And in the background, as it were, the Cold War lurked, ever threatening to engulf the world in a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.

It seems as if I have lived my life in the shadow of continuous wars. Yet we here in America have never really felt the impact of these wars in any way comparable to how each of us must have felt when the two airliners crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001! Now, as I think about all this, I am appalled by this mystery of evil which seems to overhang our world. And yet I still believe in God, a God of goodness. It is this God that I want to write about; particularly, this tender and loving Father whom I have come to know in the years since I took early retirement.