"Heart Work: Working deeper, not harder"
In the depths of my heart,
your name and cross alone
sparkles for all time and at all hours,
because of it I can be cheerful.
Valerius Herberger, 1613
In a world that celebrates achievement and visible success, join the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne, The Very Dr Andreas Loewe, on a transformative Lenten journey from ‘hard work’ to ‘heart work’—that profound inner renewal that can happen when people open themselves to God’s grace.
Reflecting on the author’s own experience of physical injury and rehabilitation, this book explores how our spiritual healing mirrors physical rehabilitation: both require vulnerability, patience, and trust in a process we cannot control. In seven weekly reflections drawing on Scripture, theological insight, and his own personal experience, Dean Andreas guides readers to discover how God can transform us from within when we finally acknowledge that we are not ‘fine’; when we realise that we cannot heal ourselves, and that we need God’s help.
Drawing on the rich Christian spiritual tradition—from St Augustine of Hippo to Dame Julian of Norwich, to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr.—Heart Work explores how grace may be found in vulnerability, and encourages readers to begin the inward journey towards transformation. Whether read individually, in groups, or as a church community, this book provides a spiritual framework for embracing the ‘heart work’ of discipleship—the inner journey that leads, inevitably, to the foot of the cross where we witness not our own work, but God’s ultimate heart work revealed in Christ’s self-offering for all humanity.
Biography of the author
Jost Andreas Loewe (b. 1973)
The Very Revd Dr Andreas Loewe is Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Senior Fellow of the Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne. An expert on Protestant German History and the sacred music of Johann Sebastian Bach, he has previously published on Bach, Bonhoeffer, Luther and the Reformation for academic, church and public audiences.
