The heart of Christian spirituality is the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. This is the ancient wisdom teaching that God is one God, in three persons: Father/Creator, Son/Redeemer, and Spirit/Sanctifier. We call ourselves “Christians” because we follow the 2nd Person of the Trinity: Jesus, the Christ. But it would be just as accurate — some […]
Close your eyes for a minute and think about “truth.” What kinds of images come to mind? For most people, truth is closely associated with solidity, finality, permanence, universality, and security. But Jesus used the metaphor of “living water” for truth. This is another of his outrageous teachings. While we tend to visualize truth as some kind of sacred rock, Jesus visualized it as water: amorphous, adaptable, and incapable of being grasped. The adjective “living” should not be neglected either. For truth is a living thing that grows in us and with us.
Join me for an online learning experience this September: “Living Prayer: the Spirituality of Everyday Liturgy.”
This online course will explore how prayer and liturgy can be part of our day-to-day lives — not just for Sunday mornings or your annual retreat. Together we will read James K.A. Smith’s wonderful book You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, which is an accessible and user-friendly guide to the relationship between ritual, worship, and love — and how Christians can use these elements to foster healthy habits of ongoing spiritual growth.
Through prayer prompts, online discussions, and daily invitations into prayer, we will explore both personal and communal aspects of how we foster an ever-deepening, everyday relationship with the God of Love.
This class is an elective that counts toward the completion of the Certificate in Spiritual Formation from Columbia Theological Seminary. However, you do not have to be enrolled in the Certificate Program to participate in this class.
Early enrollment is recommended — class size is limited.
To invite me to speak to your community, click here.
Underneath all the moralizing and polemic in the New Testament, there is a message of divinization, theosis; that is to say, in the way appropriate to humans we may once again through grace, by our kenosis, our self-forgetfulness in our lived beholding, realize our glory, our shared nature with God that was obscured in Eden, and all this entails.
Join me this summer at the Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center in Atlanta for a special three-night retreat called “Praying with the Saints and Mystics: Nurturing a Deeper Relationship with God.” This silent retreat will include ample time for personal prayer, conferences each day to invite us deeper into our prayer through the wisdom of the saints and mystics, and the beautiful facility and grounds of Ignatius House!
To invite me to speak to your community, click here.
I’m excited to be leading a retreat for the first time at the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse, WI. Our theme will be “Exploring Celtic Spirituality.”
To invite me to speak to your community, click here.
On June 24, 2018 I’ll be the “Preacher of the Week” at the Lakeside Chautauqua in Lakeside, Ohio. Over the next four days I’ll offer a series of classes called “Faith for Living” and three afternoon workshops on different dimensions of Christian prayer. The topic of the week is “Lord, teach us to pray!” — I’ll be sharing insights from the great Christian mystics as to how everyone can deepen their relationship with God through prayer.
If you aren’t a member of the Chatauqua you’ll need a gate pass to enter the chautauqua — but complimentary passes are available for the Sunday morning service and also for the Faith for Living classes. Or, you can purchase an all-day pass to enjoy the chautauqua, and if you want to participate in the entire program, there are on-site hotels and B&Bs. Visit www.lakesideohio.com for more information.
To invite me to speak to your community, click here.
We can no longer rely on being supported by structures that may be destroyed at any moment by a political power or a political force. You cannot rely on structures. The time for relying on structures has disappeared. They are good and they should help us, and we should do the best we can with them. But they may be taken away, and if everything is taken away, what do you do next?
Silence, both external (a silent place) and internal (the quieting of the heart and mind), is a prerequisite to genuine prayer. It is not simply a question of removing exterior noise but a disciplined willingness to shut off the distractions of the environment, even “good” distractions, in order to listen to the promptings of God in the heart. Silence, in the tradition of prayer, means nothing more than alertness or readiness to receive God; it is another form of saying “yes” to the promptings of God’s self-gift.
Love is not just the basis on which we build everything, but it’s also the energy with which we proceed, and it’s the final goal toward which we tend. Love has two lovely daughters called Grace and Mercy. Like identical twins, they are often indistinguishable: Grace is the inner freedom to be merciful. Mercy is grace in action. And both are the children of Love.
I had a dream last night — about one of my favorite retreat centers, and one of my favorite books. The setting of my dream was the Montreat Conference Center, in Black Mountain NC, just up the road from Asheville. I’ve been to Montreat numerous times over the past six or seven years, but always […]
I love Mepkin Abbey, and I’m so happy to be returning there in June to lead a retreat on the wisdom of the Christian Mystics. The retreat is fully booked, but contact the St. Francis Retreat Center at Mepkin Abbey if you’d like to be on the waiting list.
To invite me to speak to your community, click here.
We do not have to create silence; it is there within us. What we have to do is let it emerge and enter into it, to become silence. Silence is the language of the spirit.
I created this video, using photographs that Fran and I took in Norwich, along with a few book covers and a wonderful photo of the stained glass of Julian in Norwich Cathedral, used by permission of the photographer.
It’s just a brief little introduction to who Julian is, and why she matters. Less than 3 minutes long. Hope you enjoy it!
I’m leading a one-day workshop on Christian meditation and contemplative prayer at the New York Open Center. Our time together will include instruction and practice in silent prayer, time for personal and group reflection, and my reflections on how we can incorporate the life-transfiguring wisdom of the mystics into our lives today. Although centered on Christian spirituality and practice, this workshop is presented in an inclusive way that is appropriate for people of all faith traditions and all experience levels. Hope to see you there!
To invite me to speak to your community, click here.
O Holy Trinity, we come to you in silent prayer, seeking only to love you and adore you beyond all words and thought. Grant us the grace to long for you with such humble desire that we return to the fountain of your mercy, each and every day. Foster in our hearts quiet confidence, that […]
