Ascending Tabor: The Road Up

Five weeks from today, on August 6, we celebrate the great Feast of the Transfiguration, when Christ ascended Mount Tabor and shone before Peter, James, and John with a light not of this world.

I have stood on that mountain.

Tabor rises alone from the Jezreel Valley. The road to its summit climbs in tight switchbacks that force you to slow, to turn, to ascend in earnest. At the top, looking out over the green hills of Galilee, I felt my own calling to the contemplative life quietly confirmed.

This feast reveals the uncreated light: the very radiance of God's glory, by which we too are called to be illumined. Just as Pentecost opened the apostles' ears and hearts to the Spirit's fire, so Tabor opens our eyes and hearts to Christ's glory. And how do we seek this light? Through the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Let these five weeks be a joyful ascent toward Tabor.

This is a personal photo of Mt. Tabor taken from the Mt. Precipice overlook at the southern edge of Nazareth, looking southeast across the Jezreel Valley to Tabor.

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