At Bethany House of Prayer you will find a deeply nurturing space for contemplation and renewal in a busy world. While our roots are with the Episcopal Church, we welcome all, from various faith traditions and none, who seek to deepen their spiritual life and engage in the world with integrity.

Dear Bethany House Community,

If you’ve been on the beautiful campus here in Arlington that Bethany House shares with the Sisters of St. Anne, then you may know the flight of small steps that lead from St. Gabriel’s House up to St. John’s House.  Although I do not know this for certain, my imagination tells me that these steps were made small on purpose, with thoughtful intention. They were made small, I imagine, so that the little legs of the children whom the Sisters welcomed to live here could climb the hill with joyful determination – and not become overwhelmed by a climb that was too tough for their stature.

Each time I climb those small steps, it strikes me that they serve also as a good metaphor for our own spiritual lives, and the lives of those that Bethany House serves.  Steps in the spiritual life are, most often, not giant ones, but incremental and modest. Like learning to place one foot in front of the other, and the simple rhythm of breathing with each little step.  Learning how to pray a mantra throughout the day – “Jesus mercy” or “Hail Mary” or “God is love.”  Learning how to clear the mind for contemplation, how to dwell in the silence at the heart of all things. Learning that prayer doesn’t always require words, when “sighs too deep for words” are all that are available, and all that are needed. Learning how to pray with one’s eyes, to take a “long, loving look at the real.” 

These – and so many other soul practices – are small steps.  And like all basics, returning to them again, practicing them again and again, strengthens us to take another small step, and another, and another.  And like the legs of small children climbing stairs, by these practices we find we have – almost without knowing it – reached a new place, a new vantage point, a more spacious view into, and dwelling in, the Holy.

We at Bethany House do our best to ground our lives in these small, essential steps.  And by all that we offer here, we commit ourselves to walking alongside those who are taking small, essential steps to deepen their spiritual lives.  It is as if we were climbing those small stairs from St. Gabriel’s to St. John’s, hand in hand with other souls seeking a new perspective on their lives, on the life of the wider world that God loves, and on God’s very Self. It is a holy calling.

Thanks be to God for Bethany House and the holy work of small steps.  As you take steps this spring, and accompany others in the steps they are venturing, may you know deep in your body and soul that God is stepping out with you.

Bill Rich
Transition Director