I was particularly excited to read this revised edition before mid-April because I had plans to hear Scott Cairns speak at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.<\/p>\n What I did not anticipate was the\u00a0need I would develop to confess a few things to the author. Cairns talks a bit about the actual act of \u201cConfession\u201d in his book.<\/p>\n Confession is an element of the ancient church that has remained difficult for me to embrace, despite my developing awareness of its necessity.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The kind of confessing I have to do is of a different sort however. So, here goes.<\/p>\n Mr. Cairns, I picked up this book when I saw you were going to be speaking at the Festival of Faith and Writing. I like to read as many authors as I can beforehand and this book was on a site I go to for books to review. While the subject matter certainly enticed me, I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d like the book.<\/p>\n Mr. Cairns, I enjoyed your book very much! Further, it was a delight to meet you in person. I\u2019m going to muster up the courage to read some of your poetry next.<\/p>\n You taught me about the Jesus Prayer, which I found beautiful and calming and enough. My mom leaves soon for her first trip to Greece and she has explicit instructions to bring me home a prayer rope. For those of my readers who don\u2019t know:<\/p>\n They are, commonly, black wool, tied in strings of thirty-three, or fifty, or a hundred or more hard, square knots (sometimes wooden beads), usually held together in a loop by a cross-shaped gathering of knots and tassels. The knots or beads are for focusing on repetitions of the prayer. The cross is kissed reverently at the beginning and the end of each cycle through the rope. The tassel is for wiping your tears, which, if you\u2019re lucky, will eventually accompany your prayer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I learned so much about the beauty of Greece, the holiness of venerating the icons, the dedication in choosing a monastic life, the wonder of Antidoron. Thank you. I realize now my misgivings about reading your works had more to with my own insecurities. I can see why Mount Athos has become a regular pilgrimage for you.<\/p>\n One paragraph, though, touched me the most. It has not let me go. For I too left behind my Southern Baptist roots.<\/p>\n Even now, on occasion, I wonder if the better choice wouldn\u2019t have been to stay put. It certainly would have been the more aggravating choice, but I wonder if the braver choice would have been to remain in that besieged community where I was first taught the love of God, where I might have taken part in that community\u2019s recovery of a fullness that\u2019s been more or less left behind – as it were – by historical aberration and unfortunate, reactionary choice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n I received a copy of “Short Trip to the Edge,”<\/a>\u00a0written by Scott Cairns, from NetGalley\u00a0for the purpose of generating a review. Italicized quotes are the from the book. The opinions expressed here are my own.<\/em><\/p>\n – See more at: http:\/\/www.tracesoffaith.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/to-scott-cairns-a-confession.html#sthash.g7AvEzt3.dpuf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Traci Rhodes, www.tracesoffaith.com\/blog I recently finished my first Scott Cairns’ book, A Short Trip to the Edge: A Pilgrimage to Prayer.This book’s\u00a0first edition told the story of his pilgrimage to \u201cAgion Oros, the Holy Mountain, a monastic peninsula in northern … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n