Letter from the President and CEO September 2026

Dear Reader,

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy with my wife, brother, and sister-in-law for a family friend’s wedding. We added a couple of days in Rome, and the city’s romantic, old-world charm, coupled with its incomparable history as a crucible of much of Western civilization, was truly remarkable.

One of the most striking and transformative insights that I had was the realization of the layered spiritual history of the place. Rome’s complex history is perhaps most obvious when one realizes that the streets of 2000 years ago sat nearly 30 feet lower than the streets of today. Beyond this physical layering, however, is a spiritual and religious layering that is worth reflecting on.

One especially overt example can be found at St. Peter’s Basilica. The modern, elaborate papal altar sits directly atop a massive fourth-century monument built by Emperor Constantine. Beneath that structure rests a second-century shrine. This layer also houses a pagan burial ground that served hundreds of families in the second and third centuries. Finally, there is an even deeper, first-century dirt grave matching traditional accounts of St. Peter’s burial. During twentieth-century excavations, scientists discovered a hidden marble box there containing the bones of an elderly first-century man wrapped in imperial purple cloth. Pope Paul VI officially announced these remains as the verified relics of St. Peter in 1968.

So, this one vertical column - air, rock, dirt, marble, bones, fabric, tile, paint - represents a spiritual history still visible today. Over the centuries, the spiritual rhythm of the people who lived there became quite literally etched into the land. This got me thinking - what spiritual layers are contained within me? How do the chapters of my own life, and those of my ancestors, form a spiritual history, and what would it look like to take a cross-section of it?

Perhaps you may find it interesting to ask yourself - what would it mean to practice “spiritual archeology” on your inner landscape? What might that reveal? 

Labor Day marks a threshold in the Institute’s year. Transitioning from the strategic planning of the summer to our fall program season, there is much to look forward to. From the 35th Annual Psychotherapy & Faith Conference to the 34th Annual Spirituality in Nursing Conference to our upcoming yoga teacher training, there will be much to explore. Please join us! Maybe you’ll even add new spiritual layers along the way…

Warmly,
Stuart

Stuart C. Nelson
President & CEO
Loise Henderson Wessendorff Chair