Portraits of Grace: Images and Words from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit

James Stephen Behrens is a Trappist monk at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. Over one hundred original photographs from the monastery are featured in Portraits of Grace; each captivating image is accompanied by brief snippets of inspirational words to spark reflection and inner thought.

Behrens uses many examples from modern life, including the complications of travel, people's burgeoning interest in self-help books, time, love, stories from the news and his own varied and unique personal experiences to weave brief reflections and essays into something that, over time, develops its own quiet insistence. He urges us to find the startling in the mundane, silence and meditation in the noise, and mercy in our anger. In short, he urges us to find the peaceful, loving God in our otherwise hectic, busy, and oftentimes all too self-involved lives.