The journey of the soul, the great adventure we call spirituality, is at once highly personal and wonderfully universal. No one duplicates our fingerprints or our soul's generic codes, yet, we all have the same basic capacity to encounter reality, and we all have the same longings for the divine Mystery.
Sister Doris Klein has a deep appreciation for our uniqueness and the universality of the human condition. Her Journey of the Soul is an invitational work encouraging readers to trust their own experience of the Sacred in their lives and to take seriously the stirrings of the Spirit--the Spirit of wisdom and beauty that surrounds and sustains us. Using watercolors and words, this gifted artist draws us into her paintings and reflections, not as a stopping point but as a doorway into the presence of God, who works so profoundly in our human experience and in the creative products of artists.
Like the writer Henri J. M. Nouwen, Sister Doris grounds her reflections in
the messiness of human life, with all its ambiguities and ambivalences. The
adventure is risky and exciting, filled with loss and gain, replete with joys
and sorrows. One senses that this artist/author detests sentimentality and soft
piety. Life embraces the paschal mystery, that dying and rising process we
witness in the gospel, a process that permits little romanticism and demands a
tough realism.
Much of spirituality is focused on truth and goodness, and rightly so. Through discernment, we come to know that truth which sets us free; through the practice of virtue that issues forth in goodness, we emulate our God. But there is a third dimension of spirituality -- beauty -- that needs much more attention. Sister Doris, in her haunting, subtle, nebulous, and provocative watercolors, presents us with drawings that touch the soul in a unique way and elicit a response of wonder and awe that only beauty can do. Our challenge, which she learned from one of her teachers, is not just to look at the paintings but to "walk into them" and see what wonder they hold for us.
Our culture and our religious institutions are in need of alternative images. The old syllogism is still true: "We live on images; images lead to attitudes; attitudes lead to behavior." A work such as Journey of the Soul is not a narrative adventure into an artist's heart and soul; rather, it is a work that invites us to encounter a God who will both speak to the heart and send us forth to live fuller lives. The images presented in this volume get us in touch with our deepest self and evoke a response that, through a transformation of attitudes and behavior, impacts society. An authentic spiritual journey always has a social component leading to a sense of solidarity and social justice.
A sampling of the themes in this book gives evidence of an integral spirituality: The Weavers - Walking in Community; Transformation - Moving through Change; Surrender - Letting Go into Love; Integrity - Living in Truth; Roots of Light - Connecting with the Sacred. The dynamic of reaching in and reaching out underlies the truly creative process. Jesus' mission is one of giving life, life to the full (see John 10:10). By grounding our spiritual journey in contemplation and action, we move toward full discipleship.
For me, a central quality in the work of Sr. Doris lies in the adjective "evocative." The marvelous shadings of colors, the primordial circularity of shadowy figures, the expansive movement of energy toward infinity: these are all evocative features that both broaden our experience and help us name our own beauty and longings. This is not catechism with all kinds of answers. Rather, this is a walk into the human experience where the Mystery of God and life wait to embrace us. The "Hound of Heaven," poet Francis Thompson's term for God, is still on the loose in our world.
I've had the privilege of hearing Sr. Doris Klein lecture on her art. In those presentations, she deeply touched her audience as they "walked into" her work, indeed her soul. Many of us experienced transformation and the affirmation that encouraged us to take seriously the inner working of the Spirit of God. The sustained applause we gave her at the lectures I now give her for this present volume. It is a work of discipline and love, of tears and joys, of truth and beauty.
Enter, walk, breathe deeply, be renewed.
Bishop Robert F. Morneau is an Auxiliary Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Journey of the Soul ($25), is available through Faith @ Work. For a complete display of Sr. Doris' work, visit her website.