People and Places of Sacred Interior Spaces:
Midrashic Monologues and Guided Meditations
book coverLaura Funk has been a Spiritual Director and Retreat Facilitator for over ten years. She went on a personal retreat in 2019 and was inspired to write a book of guided meditations. She has been using guided meditations with groups and individuals for a very long time with wonderfully positive feedback.
As Laura was working on this, another group of writings came knocking on the door. She has enjoyed imagining the lives of people from the Bible for many years. One Christmas she wrote monologues for each of her family members. She had great fun imagining their personalities in the story, weaving them in with what she knew about the Biblical characters. She has also been commissioned to write monologues for retreats, and for an academic journal to be published in the fall of 2021.
And so, these two groups of writings came together under the title of “People and Places of Sacred Interior Spaces.” The idea of interior spaces speaks both to the imagination as well as that beautiful space inside each of us where we encounter the Divine whisperings of the Spirit. Each piece in this carefully crafted book can lead you through your own sacred interior space to inspire you to grow and develop more deeply into the person you are made to be.
Many of us have a great deal of stress in our lives. Learning to meditate in a way that clears our minds and releases all thoughts can be a long, difficult process. Using guided meditations gives freedom to your imagination and lets you access inner peace in your first experience, melting away stress and fatigue and invigorating you to enjoy life more fully.
What’s in the Book?
The “places” section contains 34 guided meditations designed to bring you inner peace and joy, help you work through areas of difficulty in your life, and grow more deeply into the knowledge and experience of Divine love. You’ll explore the contents of your metaphorical backpack, journey up a mountain with Jesus, watch the sunrise, walk through nature, encounter the great cloud of witnesses who love you.
The “people” section of the book contains 16 beautifully and creatively written pieces about various people from the gospel stories and one that is based on recent research into the early church. You’ll meet Zechariah and Symeon, Anna’s apprentice and Maryanne the innkeeper, the woman at the well and Martha and Mary.
What other people are saying about the book
“It was a pleasure to read. I can imagine this book would be a valuable resource for churches, counselors, and spiritual directors. It would definitely be a treasure for individuals to own and utilize as a way to explore and go deeper in their spiritual journey.”
- editor’s evaluation of the manuscript, Friesen Press
“You have done some lovely pieces and working with these stories you certainly have an agile and delightful imagination. As a spiritual director, you have experience in conversation with your people, helping make pathways to prayer and experience with the presence of God.”
- Eleanor Kreider, is a Mennonite scholar and missionary educator, prolific author and editor of many books on Liturgy and Worship
“The meditations are easy to read but not simplistic. Explanations are clear. Fresh insights and new perspectives on the biblical story make them appealing. Well-known and lesser-known biblical characters come to life. The pace is gentle. You leave open-ended spaces for Spirit and the imagination. Though there are teaching gems inserted into the meditations, they are gracefully included and don't feel didactic…. I appreciated the strong emphasis on women characters and women's experiences.”
- Marlene Kropf, DMin, Associate Professor Emerita in Spiritual Formation and Worship and author of Preparing Sunday Dinner: A collaborative approach to worship and preaching
“I absolutely love the midrashic monologues. They made scriptural time, place and story very real to me and drew me in as a person to the scenes and settings. They were very meaningful. My favorite was “Not Mary” because it really spoke to me about the times we don’t respond and the opportunities we may be missing because we have too little trust and can’t bring ourselves to take a risk. Love that phrase: ‘I didn’t trust myself to know what I knew.’
I found it very soothing somehow that Laura used completely natural situations that we can all identify with and which we all experience to bring us in touch with our deeper selves, even when sometimes they were things that we might find difficult to confront. Taking very practical things, like a backpack, and using them as a metaphor to go deeper was also very helpful. I also appreciated your ability to say without preaching how we are so interconnected with one another, with creation, etc., and doing it a way that the reader is invited to explore those possibilities rather than being told.
Something that really stood out to me is that I couldn’t tell what religious tradition you came from. I think that’s a tremendous strength because I think it makes the book appeal to a wider audience; it’s simply for all those of us who want to go deeper, to connect with creation and the creator, whatever that may mean.”
- Sr. Karen Rose, Director of Mission Advancement, St. Joseph’s Monastery, Minnesota
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