Saint Catherine's Labyrinth

Jan Richardson © 2003

appears on the cover of
Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God:
The Practice of Centering Prayer
by J. David Muyskens
(Nashville, Upper Room Books, 2006)

Text in the labyrinth:

Imagine a circle traced on the ground, and in its center a tree sprouting with a shoot grafted into its side.  The tree finds its nourishment in the soil within the expanse of the circle, but uprooted from the soil it would be fruitless.  So think of the soul as a tree made for love and living only by love.  The circle in which this tree's root, the soul's love, must grow is true knowledge of herself, knowledge that is joined to me, who like the circle have neither beginning nor end.  You can go round and round within this circle, finding neither end nor beginning, yet never leaving the circle.  So the tree of charity is nurtured in humility and branches out in true discernment.  To me this tree yields the fragrance of glory and praise to my name, and so it does what I created it for and comes at least to its goal, to me, everlasting life.

From St. Catherine of Siena
(excerpts)