• Ordinary and Spiritual Awareness

    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

    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…

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  • Cynthia Bourgeault Q & A– Gerald May Seminar 2012

    Cynthia Bourgeault Q & A– Gerald May Seminar 2012

    Cynthia Bourgeault Answers Questions of the Audience Shalem Institute Gerald May Seminar 2012 At Shalem’s recent Gerald May Seminar, Cynthia Bourgeault received a number of written questions from participants. Below are a few of those questions and her responses that we’d like to share with you— Q: You are speaking to what appears to be…

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  • Composting our Lives

    Composting our Lives

    It has been several years now since my wife and I have been able to plant a garden. So you can imagine how exciting it has been for us to plant our garden now that we are living in Reliance, Virginia. We had never tried composting before so it was going to be interesting to…

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  • A Sabbath Heart

    A Sabbath Heart

    More and more people have become aware of the need for sabbath today, even if they don’t know how to bring it into the normal rhythm of their complicated lives. We see signs of people’s desire for a more receptive quality of time in the increasing popularity of retreats and meditation practices. However, the attempts…

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  • Lectio Divina

    Lectio Divina

    Literally “Divine Reading” You can use these steps for praying with scripture, selecting a passage that seems right for you. Read the Word (Lectio) Read the passage slowly, stopping when a word or phrase “shimmers” (stands out, catches your attention), becoming a transparency of God for you.  The intention is not to get to the…

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Mission

Our mission is to nurture contemplative living and leadership.

Vision

In 2025, Shalem will be a dynamic and inclusive community, empowered by the Spirit, where seekers engage in transformation of themselves, their communities, and the world through spiritual growth, deep connection, and courageous action.

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