"Some enter the Dark Wood when their beliefs- or doubts- set them at odds with their friends or faith community. They can no longer bring themselves to pray the prayers or recite the creeds because their internal dissonance meter has gone off the charts... For others, sheer exhaustion places them in the Dark Wood... If any of these experiences describe you, then if the mystics are right, you are in the best possible position to experience profound awakening about who you are and what you are doing here."

~Eric Elnes, "Gifts of the Dark Wood"

This Sunday we continue an occasional series inspired by Eric Elnes' book, "Gifts of the Dark Wood." The "Dark Wood" was first described by medieval poet-philosopher Dante Alghieri as a place of spiritual or psychic danger, where the traveler on life's journey might fall into sin. Elnes re-interprets it as the place where the traveler may in fact learn what it is to be profoundly human, and thus, profoundly immersed in God's own life.

The Dark Wood offers many gifts. This week, gazing through the lens of the parable of the Good Samaritan, we will ponder the gift of emptiness. Won't you join us?