Welcome to our listing of upcoming regional events sponsored by Contemplative Outreach Chicago and other Contemplative Outreach chapters. Please click on the Registration link to register.
The Interior Castle:
Exploring the Depths of the Soul
With Juliana Cesano
In-person in Wheaton or online, April 27
A special practice-based spiritual experience from Contemplative Outreach Chicago and the Theosophical Society in America.
In 1577, St. Teresa of Avila wrote The Interior Castle after she received a vision picturing “the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of a very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms.” This castle has seven mansions or dwellings. Each one of them represents a different stage on the spiritual path. In the center of this castle is the Sun, or the King, who gives all the splendor and beauty to the rest of the castle. The closer we approach the center, the greater the light.
Believe the incredible truth that the Beloved has chosen for his dwelling place the core of your own being because that is the single most beautiful place in all creation. Waste no time. Enter the center of your soul.
– Miribai Starr (Introduction to The Interior Castle)
This workshop will explore and experience:
- The spiritual path as described in this great classic of Christian mystical literature
- The nature of each mansion and the conditions for progression
- How to discern where we are and our next step toward the Divine Center
- The stages of prayer and the practices and virtues that aid us in each stage
- A contemplative practice based on St Teresa’s teachings
Note: All registered participants will have the option of attending in person or watching online through a private YouTube link that will be shared via email.
Presenter: Juliana Cesano is an international speaker, and her main focus over the past 15 years has been the transformational power of contemplative practices. She is a third-generation Theosophist who has been actively involved in the Society’s work for more than 25 years. She became a staff member at the National Center of the Theosophical Society in America in 2007, where she currently serves as the Member Education Director and the National Secretary.
From Contemplative Outreach of Atlanta and Chicago
Coloring Outside the Lines by
Returning to Elementary Questioning:
How Should I Contemplate?
With Dr. Carmen Acevedo Butcher
May 11 via Zoom
Join us for a morning with Dr. Carmen Acevedo Butcher as she guides us in this session with the purpose of deepening and personalizing our own practice, both individually and collectively, with a heart for becoming more self- and others- compassionate.
What do historical and contemporary contemplative experts say about how contemplation should be done? How can we take their teachings to reimagine and reinvigorate our own spiritual practices and paths? Carmen will explore works by well-known contemplatives such as the anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing, the Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes, Brother Lawrence, the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, and more.
Presenter: Carmen Acevedo Butcher is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, educator, and poet. An award-winning translator, she has made accessible works of Early Modern French, German, Latin, Middle English, and Old English, by writers including the seventeenth-century friar Brother Lawrence, Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, the Cloud’s Anonymous, Julian of Norwich, and tenth-century Benedictine monk Ælfric of Eynsham. Carmen’s translation of The Cloud of Unknowing (2018) won an Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association. Her tenth book, Practice of the Presence, is a revolutionary translation of the wisdom of Brother Lawrence, released in 2022.