Catherine and Kees

Catherine Ann Lombard, M.A. is a psychosynthesis psychologist and has been counseling clients since 2008. Catherine is a published writer of non-fiction, including both popular personal essays and academic articles on psychosynthesis. You can learn more about her at LoveAndWill.com. Recently, Catherine’s blog A Communion with the Earth: Gardening and Gratitude was published by Krista Tippett’s On Being. Gandhi once said, “To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” Gardening can be a precise mirror for the soul. Read Catherine’s story of friendship, vigil, and tending and depending upon the Earth from the bucolic fields of the Italian countryside.

Dr. Kees den Biesen is a literary scholar, philosopher and theologian (the Dutch name ‘Kees’ is pronounced like ‘case’). Having specialized in early Christian literature, architectural theory and symbolic theology, he is fascinated by the interactions between art, intellect and religion. Kees has extensive experience in unlocking poetical lyrics for contemporary readers and has been leading Dante-reading groups for several years. As a patristic scholar, he wrote many studies of Ephrem the Syrian and currently teaches at the MA in Syriac Theology program of Salzburg University. Recently he published an Italian translation of the works of Hans van der Laan, the Benedictine monk who was his teacher in architectural theory and liturgical design.

Catherine and Kees met, fell in love, and married in Ireland twenty years ago. From 2002 until 2008, they renovated a 13th century home in Umbria while learning to garden, search for mushrooms and prune olive trees.  After eight years living and working in Northern Europe, in 2016 they returned to live in a small Umbrian village. Their house and garden is on a small hilltop with a donkey farm on one side and a chapel devoted to Saint Anthony of Padua on the other.

Here you find a selection of their publications in English.

And here is some more information about Kees in Dutch.