“‘Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself In dark woods, the right road lost.‘

“So begins Dante’s Inferno. When I read these opening lines last year with the Trinity senior girls, I asked them if they ever had experienced what Dante was talking about. They certainly weren’t midway through life’s journey, at least by my reckoning. But I, reading these lines, knew immediately what Dante was talking about: that terrible feeling of waking up one morning halfway through your life and finding yourself lost in the dark. Perhaps you know, too.

“Dante begins by trying to climb out of the woods and up a hill he sees before him, but his way is barred by wild beasts. He discovers that, in order to get out of the woods and back to the light, he must first descend into hell, seemingly the wrong direction. When he despairs of ever being able to make this journey into the fiery pit, he finds he has been sent a guide, the poet Virgil. He does not have to travel through the inferno alone.

“In 1985, I asked for help from a sister in the community because I was in the dark woods of my life. I entered into what may be the longest-running ‘temporary’ pastoral relationship in the community. I don’t think we’re keeping records of such things, but from 1985-1997 this sister talked with me weekly, sometimes daily, sometimes more than once a day, to help me with a difficult situation. She was willing to descend with me into the pit, holding my hand, so I did not have to journey alone into the dark.”   —Marge Connolly, “More Than Midway Through,” People of Praise, December 18, 2018 (retrieved March 20, 2024)