In 2003 I embarked on reading a chapter or two of the Bible each day from the beginning to the end.  A good friend joined me in this venture, and we would try to discuss the reading each day.  He comes from a secular Jewish upbringing and mine was a Catholic upbringing.  We had wonderful discussions and challenged each other constantly.  We had recently read The Book of Ruth in the Bible when I went to my parish church and made the devotion of the Stations of the Cross.  When I reached the 11th Station, which depicts Jesus being nailed to the Cross, I thought to myself "Oh Lord, we should all, all humanity, kneel down before You being crucified here and kiss Your feet and adore You," and then other distinct words came to me in my spirit, "And be like Ruth with Boaz?"  I was a bit stunned and befuddled but thought yes, maybe -- the story of Ruth with Boaz is the story of a sinner being redeemed by Jesus.  More and more I began to explore the idea of the Old Testament story of Ruth as a foreshadowing of the Gospel story.  I also researched some of the writings of the Church Fathers on the subject.  One day I mentioned the parallel nature of the Book of Ruth story and the Gospel story to a friend of mine who was studying to become a rabbi and she asked me to write my idea down and send it to her as she wanted to share it with some of her student friends.  Hmm, okay, I thought.  I went back to my office and found I could only write, or only wanted to write, what I had told her, in verse.  I was able to write the first two quatrains and that was it.  Months passed.  I ran into my student rabbi friend again and again she encouraged me to write out what I had told her.  I went back and then ideas and words began to come to me.  It was a very exciting time because every day before getting to my legal work, I would spend some time working on the poem of the story of Ruth and Boaz and every day I added one or two or three verses more.  At one point, after writing a very difficult passage that came out just beautifully, miraculously I felt, I wanted to go out into the hall and tell people, God is in my office!  I restrained myself, but, in other words, I felt very inspired -- to a degree that awes me even now as I think about this poem and how graced I was to be able to retell the story as I have in "The Way of Ruth."