I find it is helpful and heart-enlarging to think about the people who have had important and positive influences on my life. I’m not talking about family or friends, but people who invested in me, mentored me, taught me… influenced me in such a way that it changed me, the direction of my life, or evoked some kind of transformation in me that couldn’t have happened without them. Who is the most influential?

For me? Sister Marie. She was my first spiritual director from over 25 years ago. I found her last summer and paid her a visit and got this photograph of us together. She had just retired as the Abbess of the monastery last summer. I was a Presbyterian pastor those many years ago, so I had to find her and visit her incognito because I lived in an area where tensions between Catholics and Protestants were still high. She absolutely changed my life by her grace and gentle wisdom.

It’s funny but when she asked what I was doing I didn’t go into a lot of detail. I wasn’t sure she’d understand where I was today… no longer a pastor, left the church, cartooning as the nakedpastor, running an online community. But I wouldn’t be doing any of these things without her guidance sewn into the fabric of who I am.

How about you? Who is the one person you can you tell us about? Share.