Archive for Article by Shalem Staff

Article by Trish Stefanik (August 2017 eNews) I used to live in the mountain wilderness of West Virginia. I also love to spend time in the high desert of New Mexico. Both places of natural wonder open me to God. Confronted with the magnificence and starkness of the landscape and the infinite variety of creation, […]

Article by Margaret Benefiel (July 2017 eNews) What is the Spirit doing now? This question frames the New Contemplative Exchange, a gathering of 19 young contemplative leaders with Thomas Keating, Tilden Edwards, Richard Rohr, and Laurence Freeman, occurring next month at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. Fifty years ago, the Spirit stirred Keating, Edwards, […]

Today’s post is by Bryan Berghoef My first introduction to a meditation bell or singing bowl was at my first Shalem staff meeting over four years ago. I clearly remember hearing it ring out—the warm vibrations had an immediate calming influence. It seemed the obvious and natural way to lead us into silence, even though […]

Article by Margaret Benefiel (May 2017 eNews) Marches. Online petitions. Letters to the editor. “Am I doing any good?” I ask myself. “Am I making a difference? Is there another way?” In the face of injustice, wars, and humanity’s inhumanity to humanity, I long to be faithful to doing my part to heal the world. As […]

Today’s post is by Bryan Berghoef Spring is upon us, and the warmer weather has many of us returning to tasks we last performed some months ago. We may find ourselves mowing the lawn, prepping the garden, pruning some bushes, setting out bird seed, or simply enjoying the ever-greening view. As I called upon my […]

Today’s post is from the writings of the late Gerald May (April 2017 eNews) …Nature’s teaching is also a healing. And though we must indeed be taught, it is the healing that we need most. We have been fractured. We have been broken off from the nature of the world, broken away from the nature of […]

Today’s post is by Leah Rampy When compassion fills my heart,  free from all desire,  I sit quietly like the earth. My silent cry echoes like thunder  throughout the universe.  – Rumi What does it mean for us to be called to compassion, graced with the capacity and the desire? What do we notice about […]

Today’s post is by Patience Robbins Group spiritual direction, also known by other names such as sacred listening circles or prayerful listening circles, is a wonderful process for nurturing values such as mutuality, reverence, deep listening and compassion. Mutuality speaks of a circle model, in which everyone participates.  No one is an expert or the […]

Today’s post is by Margaret Benefiel “Rebuild my church.”  God used these words from Francis of Assisi’s story to speak to me as I sat in prayer with two spiritual companions in Greensboro, North Carolina, after a heartbreaking disillusionment.  I had left a job that I had thought was my dream job, my dream shattered.  […]

Today’s post is by Tilden Edwards Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.  ~Rumi, in “Open Secret: Versions of Rumi” […]