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Fifty Years of Longing
Fifty years ago, Tilden Edwards gathered a small group of people who longed to go deeper in prayer, seeking to recover the Christian contemplative tradition. As they met and prayed, they discovered that God longed for them as much as they longed for God. They were drawn deep into the heart of God. As they…
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Keep Walking
One morning about halfway through my pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, as I was standing outside the hotel in my walking gear, a mother with two young children – a boy and a girl – emerged from the hotel. The mother smiled at me and asked if I was walking to Santiago.…
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Perfect Imperfection
As a course name, Heart Longings, perfectly evoked the sense of excitement and possibility I brought to the class. The phrase also conjured in my mind a heart-led journey toward something long-awaited, hoped for, yet never quite obtainable. Those were the images that stirred in my heart and mind when, in 2022, I encountered Shalem’s…
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Responding to Divine Initiative
“Those of us who were part of the Vision Coalition and worked on Vision 2025: Our Ongoing Hope have been asked to write reflections on the Guiding Principles of Vision 2025. The Guiding Principles are statements that remind us of who we are and who we are becoming — a place where both the present and…
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Spirituality and Money
It is a great joy to join the Shalem staff as your new Director of Development and Communications! As some of you already know, I took my first class in contemplative prayer from Tilden Edwards forty years ago, after graduating college and preparing to enter seminary. Tilden’s teaching and writing shaped much of my experience…
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Contemplation & Agnosticism
God, I’m going to try this. I’m afraid of failing or feeling you turn away, but I’m going to try to meditate and pray daily. I’m going to try to embrace the “God-ness” within me and listen to it – if and when it speaks. I will try hard not to run away, but instead…