Marestelle Spiritual Direction

Marestelle Spiritual Direction Spiritual direction is holy listening with another. Marestelle~ Sea and Stars
"Where can I hide from you? How can I escape your presence?

It offers a time and place to step back and take notice of the sacred in our lives and provides an opportunity to explore our relationship with God. I scale the heavens, you are there. I plunge to the depths, you are there. If I fly toward the dawn, or settle across the sea, even there you take hold of me, your right directs me." ~Psalm 139


My name is Angelina Colonna Calogero. I hold Masters de

grees in Counseling and Pastoral Ministry in addition to being a certified Spiritual Director and certified bereavement support group facilitator. I bring the gifts from these ministries to Spiritual Direction especially, but not exclusively, to the work of the spirituality of grief. Meetings last one hour, typically once a month or at the discretion of the directee. I welcome women and men from all Christian traditions. I am also available to facilitate bereavement support groups, Labyrinth walks and women's spirituality programs. Fees are discussed privately.

05/18/2025

You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come, to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

Excerpt from the blessing, 'For One Who is Exhausted,' from John's books:
Benedictus (Europe) / To Bless the Space Between Us (US)

Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

Lahinch Beach, County Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

04/20/2025

“While it was still dark.” John’s Gospel tells us that when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds it empty, the day has not yet begun. I cannot tell you how much I depend on that detail. Easter starts in the shadows; resurrection begins in the place where it is difficult to perceive. Here in the dark, as Easter makes its way to us and in us, I am sending so many blessings for you. In whatever ache we carry, may we, like the Magdalene, know the astonished wonder of the Love that calls our name.

THE MAGDALENE’S BLESSING
For Easter Day

You hardly imagined
standing here,
everything you ever loved
suddenly returned to you,
looking you in the eye
and calling your name.

And now
you do not know
how to abide this hole
in the center
of your chest,
where a door
slams shut
and swings open
at the same time,
turning on the hinge
of your aching
and hopeful heart.

I tell you,
this is not a banishment
from the garden.

This is an invitation,
a choice,
a threshold,
a gate.

This is your life
calling to you
from a place
you could never
have dreamed,
but now that you
have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine
choosing any other way.

So let the tears come
as anointing,
as consecration,
and then
let them go.

Let this blessing
gather itself around you.

Let it give you
what you will need
for this journey.

You will not remember
the words—
they do not matter.

All you need to remember
is how it sounded
when you stood
in the place of death
and heard the living
call your name.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Image: “While It Was Still Dark”
© janrichardsonimages.com

04/18/2025

For you, for this Good Friday. In the rending, in the anguish, in the fear, may we follow in the way of Christ with courage. May we be part of the love that persists.

BLESSING THAT MAKES A WAY FOR YOU
For Good Friday

What I know is
that this blessing will begin
as soon as you set out.

That this blessing
will meet you
in every step.

That it is gladly
bound to you
and cannot do
without you.

That you are
part of the path
this blessing makes:
that it creates a way
not only for you
but through you
and in you,
that it finds its road
as you find yours.

I can hardly fathom
how it is
that this blessing
is already waiting for you
even as you fashion it,
step by faltering step.

But there it is,
in all its wending mystery.

So may you meet it
with courage.
May you enter it
with clarity.
May you walk it
with wisdom.
May you travel it
with joy.

May you come to it
not as one buffeted
by chance
but as one
who has chosen.
Uncertain, perhaps;
unready, perhaps;
but this path.
This one.
With abandon.
This.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Image: “Still”
© Jan Richardson
janrichardsonimages.com

04/13/2025

I have a lot of ambivalence and hesitancy about today. It’s one thing to hear the story of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem knowing what will happen to him. It’s another thing when we realize i…

04/12/2025

In the conversation with Pastor Rob for his “Art and Prayer” series that I shared in my post here yesterday, we talked about the road that appears in my “Palm Sunday” artwork. I think about that road as moving in two directions: the road comes toward us, with Christ making his way toward us along that path, and the road also stretches out in front of us, inviting us to go out and meet him. Here at the edge of Palm Sunday, which direction might that road be inviting us? As we move into this Holy Week, this blessing is for you.

BLESSING OF PALMS

This blessing
can be heard coming
from a long way off.

This blessing
is making
its steady way
up the road
toward you.

This blessing
blooms in the throats
of women,
springs from the hearts
of men,
tumbles out of the mouths
of children.

This blessing
is stitched into
the seams
of the cloaks
that line the road,
etched into
the branches
that trace the path,
echoes in
the breathing
of the willing c**t,
the click
of the donkey’s hoof
against the stones.

Something is rising
beneath this blessing.
Something will try
to drown it out.

But this blessing
cannot be turned back,
cannot be made
to still its voice,
cannot cease
to sing its praise
of the One who comes
along the way
it makes.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Image: “Palm Sunday"
© janrichardsonimages.com

This image and blessing first appeared in the reflection “Palm Sunday: The Way It Makes” at paintedprayerbook.com.

01/06/2025

Happy Epiphany! I love this day of mystery and light, and how it invites us to remember that we find our way through the unknown by being willing to set out into it. This blessing is for you, for this day, with gratitude for your company on the path.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FAR TO TRAVEL
An Epiphany Blessing

If you could see
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.

Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.

There is nothing
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:

to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;

to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.

There are vows
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.

Keep them, break them,
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel

to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Image: "The Wise Ones"
© Jan Richardson
janrichardsonimages.com

(P.S. If you haven’t seen the new retreat for Women’s Christmas, which some folks celebrate on Epiphany Day: https://sanctuaryofwomen.com/womenschristmas.html. You can download it as a PDF at no cost.)

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Brookside, NJ
07926

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