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The Healing Power of Presence, A Visit with Henri Nouwen
When Henri Nouwen visited Shalem, Lin Ludy recorded the discussion, which we think offers timely thoughts on healing presence and joy during this holy season. After Shalem’s Friday morning meditation on healing, Henri Nouwen joined in the discussion. Here are some things he shared: Our presence becomes truly healing when we trust in that presence. …
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Digging Deep to Holy Water
Thoughts on Interspirituality Recently I’ve been doing independent study at my seminary on individuals (or communities) who find themselves called to stand in more than one religious tradition. The depth of this kind of multiple engagement runs a spectrum, from the Christian who flirts with Hindu yoga, to the Jew who has taken refuge in…
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The Stones Will Cry Out – Reflecting on My Pilgrimage to Iona
The Stones Will Cry Out REFLECTING ON MY PILGRIMAGE TO IONA Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!” (Lk 19:39-40) A pilgrimage can effect a change of heart: though an outward journey, it…
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Composting our Lives
by Rose Mary Dougherty* *Excerpted from her article, “Composting our Lives” from Shalem’s News, Volume 33, No. 1-Winter, 2009. The full issue may be viewed here. Several years ago, I was participating in a retreat (where)… we were to spend one day outdoors in the surrounding wooded area. Our instructions were to go outdoors, follow…
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Ordinary and Spiritual Awareness
Those who come back from a near-death experience bring with them a visceral remembrance of how vivid and abundant life is when the sense of separateness has dropped away. Those who fall profoundly in love experience a dying into the other that melts every shred of their own identity, self-definition, caution, and boundaries, until finally…
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Fertile Emptiness
This phrase of Tilden Edward’s has been spinning around inside of me for the past year. What does it mean? How can emptiness be fertile or productive? Doesn’t emptiness imply a nothingness, a lack of anything? And how can anything fertile be empty since the word “fertile” denotes fullness and fruitfulness? Surely “fertile emptiness” is…