Summary

Chapter Twenty-Three marks the beginning of Part V, "Confirmation". In this introductory chapter, “Breath”, the author identifies several different things or experiences that share common characteristics with The Holy Spirit. These things range from air to fire, from birds, to the wind. After each description, she calls the reader to “pay attention” (162 et al). Finally, she compares the Spirit [sic] to “a womb, from which the living are born again,” and suggesting that the experience of being born from the Spirit is like being physically born, “so many new things to see, so many gifts to give and receive, so many miracles to baffle and amaze, if only we pay attention” (164).

In Chapter Twenty-Four, “Wayside Shrines,” the author describes her visit to St. Bernard Abbey in Alabama in the middle of a very hot summer. She went there, she says, in search of...