A leading spiritual writer provides deep insight into some of the best-known verses of the Bible.

Through the famous verses of Ecclesiastes—"For everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven"—Joan Chittister reflects on timeless themes: the purpose and value of human life, the balance of joy and sorrow, work and rest, love and loss.

In meditating on the contrasting seasons of our lives, Chittister shows how human fulfillment and true happiness come, not from getting and having more and more, but from knowing and valuing what we have. Friendship and laughter, patience and sorrow, humility and compassion, from birth through death—all these are God's gifts to us, the precious moments of life itself. These moments speak to us: "Look at life once more and where you have been blinded, see, and where you have become numb to the point of the senseless, the dead of heart, now glory."

Joan Chittister, a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, is a best-selling author and well-known lecturer on topics of justice, women’s issues, and contemporary spirituality. A past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, she currently serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the United Nations. She is the author of 45 books, including The Gift of Years (Bluebridge, 2010) and Following the Path (Image, 2012). Her Orbis books include Illuminated Life, The Ten Commandments, and The Way We Were.