“We are made of love, and because of love, and for love, and to Love we must return, for [God] awaits us with longing.”—LILIAN STAVELEY Lilian Staveley (1878–1928), a Christian writer and mystic, anonymously published three books about the ordinary soul’s extraordinary love for God. Born to an affluent British family, Lilian preferred meditating alone in nature. “In some mysterious manner,” she recalls in her autobiography, The Prodigal Returns, “I inhaled the very essence of the Beautiful.” After struggling with her faith, she rediscovered it after a freak accident—a lightning strike. During a painful recovery, she realized that only God’s love could sustain her. Later she had a vision: “Suddenly, with the most intense vividness, [Jesus] presented himself before my consciousness so that I inwardly perceived him,” she wrote. Using a…
