Return to the Root

Book excerpt: Winner of a third-place award for contemporary spirituality from the Catholic Media Association. One of the Spirituality & Practice 50 best spiritual books of 2021. For more than a decade, bestselling author and international retreat leader Joyce Rupp has written a monthly newsletter offering personal reflections and inspiration from her heart to ours. In Return to the Root, Rupp expands on the best of those reflections to invite all of us who feel overwhelmed by busyness, cut off from the Divine, or adrift in the world to reach solid ground. Through her reflections, as well as new poems and prayers, she guides us to see the essential—what is at the root of our lives and what keeps us rooted—so that we can feel at peace no matter the events of the world around us. Rupp offers meditative, uplifting reflections—grown out of the seasons, the Church’s liturgical life, and the small moments that adorn our days—that escort us through the year. With each reflection, we shift beyond the immediate moment to see the timeless truths within, including choosing to hold on to hope, trusting how God speaks to us and how we experience the Divine, and recognizing that there is always something for which to be grateful. Whether we need to be reminded of important truths or to experience moments of tranquility in a life of nonstop distractions, Rupp’s Return to the Root offers us space to explore the beauty of the world and hold onto those things that sustain our beings and, as the apostle Paul wrote, keep us “rooted and grounded in love.”