Date: March 24, 2026
Today is our Quiet Day. As a seminary community, we pause to embrace the gift of silence, quieting our hearts and minds so that we might hear God speaking to us. It can be tempting to fill this time with more work. Yet this day invites us to resist that urge and instead enter more deeply into stillness.
Our Quiet Day speaker, Dr. Westina Matthews, will offer reflections inspired by the words of Saint Francis, who, on his deathbed, told his brothers: “I have done what was mine to do; may Christ now teach you what you are to do.”
Dr. Matthews writes: “We are living in the ache between promise and fulfillment, carrying worries and concerns about today and the future. This Quiet Day is an invitation to a sacred exploration of discernment and calling through the central question, ‘What is mine to do?’ Rather than rushing toward answers, you will be guided along a gentle pathway, offering permission to pause, breathe, and trust that the answers rest within the One who already knows and loves you completely.”
May this day of quiet open space within you for the gentle leading of God’s Spirit.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary & President of The General Theological Seminary