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A Deeper Understanding of Beauty
By Stephanie Gretchen Burgevin. Stephanie is a writer and retreat leader. She is an associate faculty member of Shalem and a graduate of their Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats Program and leads spiritual and secular programs. Stephanie manages Shalem’s blog. You can see more of her writing at blessedjourneyblog.com. This holiday season has given me a…
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Grace for the New Year
By Savannah Kate Coffey. Kate is a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary and Shalem’s Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats Program for which she now serves as adjunct staff. She lives and writes in South Carolina. It’s that time of year when many of us look at the 12 fresh months stretching out before us and we resolve to do…
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Never Knowing Where We Fly
Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where flight will take them. There is a deep and humbling lesson in the way of birds. Their wings grow and stretch and span patches of air. First tentatively and then with confidence, they lift, they pump, they glide, they land. It seems, for birds, it is the…
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Island Retreat: Contemplative Poetry
Guest blog by Tom Ryan. Fr. Thomas Ryan, CSP, directs the Paulist North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations located in the Hecker Center in Washington, DC. He leads ecumenical retreats and workshops in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. An active contemplative and lover of the outdoors, Tom has authored 14 books on a…
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Gratitude & Compassion
Humanity as a whole needs a breakthrough into the contemplative dimension of life. This is the Life at the heart of the world. There the human family is already one. If one goes to one’s own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else, and all in the heart of the Ultimate…
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The Simplicity of a Peaceful Holiday
By Stephanie Gretchen Burgevin. Stephanie is a writer and retreat leader. She is an associate faculty member of Shalem and a graduate of their Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats Program and leads spiritual and secular programs. Stephanie manages Shalem’s blog and is one of the social media coordinators for the Shalem Institute Facebook page. I can…