Spirit Journal – January 2020

Preview

• Time is growing short to register for Enter the Chaos, our special Winter Retreat in February.
• Discounted Early Bird registration has begun for our June 6 all-day workshop on Howard Thurman, offered by Lerita Coleman Brown at the Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park.
• An in-depth, four-day Servant Leader retreat will take place in late May. All are invited.
• We provide a listing of selected contemplative events that are coming up soon, sponsored by others.
• An article describes how one of our members completed a year-long process to become a certified presenter of Introductory Centering Prayer workshops.
• This month’s Insights come from Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Brad Pitt, and Ram Dass.

Please let us know what you think about Spirit Journal – and start your side of the conversation – by emailing the editor at the address provided at the end of the newsletter. We look forward to hearing from you!

Winter Retreat February 20-23: An Invitation to “Enter the Chaos”

by Alan Krema

There are still a couple of spaces available if you would like to register for February’s Winter Retreat: Enter the Chaos: Engage the Differences to Make a Difference at the Portiuncula Center in Frankfort Illinois.  We’ve been hosting Winter Retreats for a number of years now, but this one is a bit different.

Last April I was very blessed to attend an earlier Enter the Chaos retreat.  It is a four-day retreat full of Centering Prayer and fully engaged with the many differences we find in our present-day relationships.

I was very moved by the power of the retreat to open my awareness of connection and unity with people from widely diverse backgrounds.  The retreat considered the perspective of the stages of human growth and development, as described by “integral theory” and “spiral dynamics.”  We considered the relationships of our lives, close family and friends as well as societal and political relationships.  When we considered the positions and perspectives of others from the point of view of the way they see reality from their stage on the psycho-spiritual journey, we came to a deeper understanding of them as fellow human beings.

Combined with contemplative meditation, which opens our hearts and boundaries, I felt a deep connection to others and found a new place from which to converse with them.  I experienced a new intention to embody and engage with values of sharing and working with others who have diverse thoughts and opinions.

Enter the Chaos is a unique opportunity to combine extensive communal and individual contemplative practice with a deep teaching of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory of stages of development, as formulated in the Spiral Dynamics context by Don Beck. This combination will grow the power of personal engagement with your life’s relationships in a dramatic opening of boundaries, using the mind to serve the heart.

The retreat/workshop was designed and developed by the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue (ICCD).   The program reflects the commitment of the ICCD to communal contemplation as a powerful transformative practice that develops within us a new way of seeing our self and the world. It teaches us to use the power of dialogue to engage each other across differences and generate creative new responses.

If you have wondered, “What can I do?” to better participate in our polarized societal discourse, this retreat will help a great deal. You can take a look at the complete retreat description and have an opportunity to register on the event page.

Join Us for a Full-Day Workshop on Howard Thurman – June 6 at Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park

Discounted Early Bird Registration Now Open

What does it mean to be a freed human spirit?

Join us on June 6 to learn more about Howard Thurman and how he succeeded in merging contemplation and action in the interest of social justice and the American civil rights movement. This workshop will take us on a journey through the life and writings of Howard Thurman and provide a taste of his contemplative practices.

Howard Thurman (1899-1981) was one of the most important and influential contemplatives of the 20^th Century.  As a mystic, theologian and spiritual adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Thurman possessed the uncanny and prophetic ability to make a connection between silence and social justice work.

As the spiritual architect of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Thurman chose to engage in sacred activism —work that would serve all people — and to use the contemplative experience as a path to peace, purpose and empowerment.  He wrote about this desire in Jesus and the Disinherited, a book that Dr. King carried with him whenever he marched, and his advocacy of the common unity among all of God’s holy children is highlighted in a later book, The Creative Encounter.

Workshop Leader: Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD

Our guide for the workshop will be Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD,  Ayşe I. Carden Distinguished Professor Emerita of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, and a spiritual director/companion, writer, retreat leader, and speaker.  She earned her BA from UC Santa Cruz and PhD from Harvard University.

A graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, Professor Brown promotes contemplative spirituality, the living wisdom of Howard Thurman, and uncovering the peace and joy in one’s heart on her website, peaceforhearts.com and other social media platforms.

Her recent chapter, “Dissecting Racism: Healing Minds, Cultivating Spirits,” was published in the edited volume, Living into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America.  Her book, When the Heart Speaks, Listen—Discovering Inner Wisdom was released in 2019.

If you would like to know more about Howard Thurman’s life and work, we recommend viewing the recent PBS documentary Backs Against the Wall, which features commentary by Lerita Brown among other Thurman experts.

For complete information and a chance to take advantage of discounted Early Bird Registration, please visit the event page.

Servant Leader Retreat – May 28-31

This program, entitled Deepening the Contemplative Dimension of Servant Leadership,  is offered in the context of a retreat setting for persons who are currently engaged in serving Contemplative Outreach or other spiritual networks, employed in service vocations, or those who may envision exploring the experience of offering loving service to others with a deeper level of understanding.  All are welcome.

The retreat will explore important questions such as:

• What is servant leadership?
• What is authentic service?
• Whom are we serving?

The four day program was inspired by Fr. Thomas Keating, who envisioned providing a unique opportunity to deeply reflect on the nature and essence of authentic service, exploring the impact of Centering Prayer, which gently cultivates an interior call to service and movement to a contemplative dimension of spirituality and service.  In community, we will explore topics that move us from a mythic to mystic expression of contemplative service and other topics to enrich and support our contemplative journey. The retreat program will include periods of Centering Prayer in community, silence, chant and wisdom circles.

The Servant Leader Retreat will take place Thursday, May 28^th through Sunday, May 31^st at the Portiuncula Center for Prayer in Frankfurt, Illinois. It will be guided by Susan Komis and Susan Rush, two Contemplative Outreach leaders who bring in-depth expertise and extensive experience to the work.

For complete information on the Servant Leader Retreat and the retreat leaders, as well as a chance to register, please visit the event page.

Other Upcoming Events, Retreats, and Conferences

International Thomas Merton Society Meeting Schedule, February-April

Here is the Merton Society line-up for the next few months:

Sunday, Feb. 16: Pauline Viviano, “The Time of No Room: Thomas Merton’s Reflections on the Past Century.”  In Raids on the Unspeakable, Merton speaks of “the time of the end as a time of no room.”  In the tradition of the prophets of the Old Testament he looks underneath the affluence of his age at the problems deeply ingrained in America.  It is a harsh assessment, but it ends on a positive note.  We will reflect upon what Merton has to say about American culture and how we can move from despair to hope and from hatred to love.

Sunday, Mar. 15: Anthony Nuccio, “What Does It Mean to Be at Peace? A Mertonian Engagement with Anti-fascist Organizing and Thought.”

Sunday, Apr. 19: Matthew Reid, “Contemplative Influence on Contemporary Culture.”

Merton Society meetings take place in the Immaculate Conception Rectory Assembly, 7211 W. Talcott, Chicago.  A freewill offering will be taken (suggested contribution $5) and refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Mike at 773-447-3989.

The Art of Pausing: Reclaiming a Sense of Balance in Our Lives – February 23

Subtitled Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed, this inspiring afternoon will explore scripture and its message for us today. There is a monastic saying, “cut back, it will grow stronger.” In our intensely active, highly mobile and socially inter-connected society, we seem to have lost the simple pleasure of pausing. But there are ways to pause periodically and still be productive.

Looking to ancient contemplative practices and some modern-day ones as well, this workshop will explore how to slow down, seek balance and allow our souls catch up with the rest of our lives. It will be presented by Judith Valente, an awarding-winning author, print and broadcast journalist, a former religion correspondent for PBS-TV, former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, poet, and essayist.

Sponsored by the Benedictine Oblates, this event is free and open to the public at Benedictine Sisters of Chicago St. Scholastica Monastery, 7430 N. Ridge Blvd, Chicago from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 23. Free will offering at the door benefits the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago.

Transformative Dreamwork: An Experiential Workshop – February 29

“Dreams arise from a larger field than our everyday consciousness inhabits, and often come to us in a language and landscape all their own,” says workshop leader Susan Pannier-Cass. “By engaging with our dreams, their meanings can reveal what we need to know for greater health and wholeness.”

The workshop will teach the unique symbolic language of dreams, why we should pay attention to them, and how to better recall dreams, and will also discuss willing participants’ dreams in an engaging, interactive group process to help reveal their deeper meaning.

Susan Pannier-Cass is an ordained interfaith minister, kundalini yoga and meditation teacher, and is the spiritual director at the Claret Center in Hyde Park. She is a student of the Jungian Studies Program (JSP) at the Jung Institute in Chicago.

The workshop on dreams takes place Saturday, February 29, 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. at the Theosophical Society in Wheaton. For more further information or to register, please visit the Theosophical Society website.

Eight Day Intensive and Post-Intensive Retreats July 12-19 – Benet Lake Wisconsin

Intensive and Post-Intensive Retreats offer you an opportunity to deepen the practice of Centering Prayer in an atmosphere of profound silence and community support. These extended retreats are offered every summer, alternating between Contemplative Outreach of Southeast Wisconsin (2020) and Contemplative Outreach Chicago (2021). Registration for this summer’s retreat is now available on the Contemplative Outreach of Southeast Wisconsin website.

Ongoing Centering Prayer “11^th Step” Programs – Chicago

In AA 12-step programs, the 11^th step is making a personal effort to get in touch with a Higher Power, however one understands it.  Increasingly, people in 12-Step programs are deepening their relationships with their Higher Power using the method of Centering Prayer.

Here in the Chicago area, an ongoing Centering Prayer-based 11^th step group meets every Tuesday at 8:00pm in the 12 Step House, 4454 N. Damen.  Another group meets on the first Friday of each month at 6:45pm in conference room “C” on the 7th floor of the Community First Medical Center, 5645 W. Addison Street, Chicago. For further information on both programs, please contact Philip Lo Dolce — stuffer1@ameritech.net.)

Curt Paddock Commissioned as Presenter for Introductory Centering Prayer Classes

Over the past year, Curt Paddock, a member of Contemplative Outreach-Chicago’s Circle of Service, participated in a discernment and formation process to become commissioned by Contemplative Outreach’s national office as an authorized presenter of the organization’s Introduction to Centering Prayer course. The Introductory Course provides an overview of the history, theology and method of the Centering Prayer practice. It is intended to assist those who are interested in Centering Prayer with guidance on how to get started with the practice and how to learn more.

The formation process consists of three stages. Curt initially participated last March in a group weekend retreat in which he received instruction on the approach and content of the Introductory course. In July, he attended a Centering Prayer Intensive Retreat where, over a nine-day period, he engaged in extensive study and practice of Centering Prayer.

The final stage of the process was a supervised presentation of the Introductory course to a group of beginning practitioners of Centering Prayer. This group was composed of fifteen members from St. Edward and Christ Episcopal Church, the parish church that Curt attends in Joliet, Illinois. The last segment of this presentation was enhanced by the participation of a Swami from The Temple of Harmony, a Kriya Yoga ashram in Joliet. The Swami provided an interspiritual perspective on the value and practice of meditative prayer. It is hoped that those who participated in the Introductory course will become the nucleus for a Centering Prayer group in the near future.

As one of Contemplative Outreach-Chicago’s roster of commissioned presenters, Curt is now available as a resource for any group in the Chicago metropolitan area that would like to sponsor provision of the Introduction to Centering Prayer course. Any interested person can contact Curt directly at his email address: curt.paddock@aol.com. (Curt is also a certified Spiritual Director and Retreat Leader. More information about his background and services can be found at his web site: www.friendsonthepath.net.)

Or, for access to all of our commissioned presenters of  Introductory Centering Prayer workshops throughout the region, you may contact Bob Frazee at bobfrazee1@gmail.com.

Insights

The gate of heaven is everywhere.

– Thomas Merton

Consent is not an effort.  Surrender is not an effort.  And transformation is something only God can do.  From that perspective, it should be easy.  So, my heartfelt prayer for each of you is: Keep going!  And, have invincible confidence that this is God’s work in you, and do not be afraid to ask that what he has begun in you might be completed.

– Thomas Keating

I don’t care who you are, life is a struggle. It’s how you perceive those struggles. As I’ve gotten older, I take them more as another day in the office, acceptance of what the day throws at you.

– Brad Pitt

As we grow in our consciousness, there will be more compassion and more love, and then the barriers between people, between religions, between nations will begin to fall.

– Ram Dass

Your Turn

Please write in to comment on or add to any of the items in Spirit Journal.  Let us know if you are aware of an upcoming event you think others should know about, or send us an inspirational quote you’d like to share, or information about a book, website, podcast, or video you recommend.  You can contribute by emailing the newsletter editor at news@centeringprayerchicago.org.