The Homing Spirit: A Pilgrimage of the Mind, of the Heart, of the Soul

I call this book The Homing Spirit, thinking of the anguish of not knowing where home is, and the hope and joy of the spirit finding its true home. It is possible, I learned, to have a direction even though you feel lost and don’t know where you are. As I understand it, coming home for the spirit means coming to peace. My own quest of peace, as I tell of it here, takes the form of three pilgrimages to Jerusalem. No doubt, calling Jerusalem ‘the city of joy.’ Still, I did find a way to peace there in conversations with Jews and Christians and Muslims. On my first journey there, ‘a pilgrimage of the mind’ as I call it, I found peace of mind in the sense of a reality greater than ourselves, in going beyond ‘I think, therefore I am’ to the great ‘I am’ of the burning bush and the Gospel of John. On my second, ‘a pilgrimage of the heart,’ I found peace of heart in restless desire becoming prayer, in contemplative insight into the unquiet ‘imagination of the heart.’ On my third, ‘a pilgrimage of the soul,’ I found peace of soul in living in touch with God, in becoming so lonely for God. So lonesome for human beings, that I was able to be caught up in life and light and love. As it turned out, I found the home of the spirit in a life larger than life. –John S. Dunne