Spirituality is for Every Body: 8 Accessible Ways to Connect with the Divine When Living with a Disability By Allison V. Thompkins, Ph.D.
Allison V. Thompkins, Ph.D., shares how spiritual practices have sustained her and how the Spirit has guided her to fulfill her purpose of advocating for the disabled. She illustrates each spiritual practice with a vignette from her journey. She also offers a practical guide for how to apply spiritual principles to disability-oriented issues and how to adapt spiritual practices for people with various disabilities.
– Lydia Mercado, Shalem Contemplatives of Color/BIPOC Advisory Committee Member
The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism – 1200-1350 by Bernard McGinn
This third volume of McGinn’s five volume series on the history of western mysticism is a fascinating and well researched read. He illuminates the profound cultural and religious changes which nurtured a dynamic shift in the spiritual dialogue of the time. Of particular interest was his exploration into the lives of what he refers to as the four “female evangelists” of the 13th Century. This has proved to be an invaluable guide as I have prepared for the Fall “My Daughter, My Temple” pilgrimage to Assisi.
– Chuck McCorkle, Assisi Pilgrimage Co-Leader
Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation by Adam Bucko
Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation is a powerful book. Much-needed in this time of political turmoil, violence, and election anxiety in the U.S. and other countries, this book shows what contemplative groundedness in the midst of the storm looks like. Bucko helps each of us discern what is ours to do.
– Margaret Benefiel, Executive Director
Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
Also known as “The Nap Bishop,” Tricia Hersey encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice. In a culture that teaches us that exhaustion is a badge of honor and that our value is defined by our productivity, what renewal might we find by setting aside time to re-ground and center ourselves in the Holy?
– Westina Matthews, Shalem Contemplatives of Color/BIPOC Advisory Committee Member
The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness by Christine Valters Paintner
Another beautiful offering by Christine! She helps us remember the wisdom of the mystics, including our ancestors and angels. A great gift for spiritual directors.
– Susan Etherton, Board Member
Remind Me Again: Poems and Practices for Remembering Who We Are by Joe Davis
Joe, a self-proclaimed student and practitioner of Radical Joy, resides in Minneapolis, and shares his gifts as poet, artist and educator nationally and internationally. We have added this generous and beautiful resource to our Clergy Deepening Program bibliography, and as clergy ourselves we often engage with his poems and practices for our own personal and congregational prayer.
– Kathie and Peter Nycklemoe, Going Deeper: Clergy Spiritual Life and Leadership program Co-Directors