Nijana: The Horse of Lindisfarne

In 2001, I joined Shalem’s Celtic pilgrimage to the islands of Lindisfarne and Iona. Each morning, our pilgrim group gathered outdoors to welcome the day with morning prayers. On Lindisfarne we walked down a flower-lined lane in front of the nearly 1000-year-old parish church that stands before the ruined medieval priory. Then we turned away […]

May 05, 2021 by Jo Ann Staebler
Categories: Body Prayer, Breath, Celtic spirituality, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Spirituality, Iona, Listening, Love, Nature and spirituality, Non-duality, Pilgrimage, Prayer, Retreat time, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual growth, and spirituality in community. Tags: awareness, community, contemplation, contemplative tradition, earth, God, grounding, hope, Inspiration, Iona, joy, listening, love, nature, peace, pilgrimage, prayer, presence, retreat, silence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, and trust. Formats: Article by Shalem Staff.

Summer Resources for Spiritual Sustenance

As we move into the long days of summer, some of Shalem’s board and staff have put together a list of books, movies, poetry and other resources that are contemplatively grounding and inspirational.  Enjoy! BOOKS Tilden Edwards (Founder and Senior Fellow) When Faith Becomes Sight: Opening Your Eyes to God’s Presence All Around You by […]

May 05, 2021 by Shalem Institute
Categories: Beloved Community, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Reading, Contemplative Spirituality, Coronavirus, Discernment, Grief, Listening, Loss, Love, Nature and spirituality, Pandemic, Personal Spiritual Deepening, Prayer, Retreat time, Self Compassion, Service, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, spirituality at work, spirituality in community, and Uncategorized. Tags: awareness, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative movies, contemplative poetry, Contemplative Reading, Contemplative Resources, contemplative tradition, Covid-19, discernment, earth, God, grief, grounding, healing, hope, Inspiration, joy, leadership, listening, love, Meditation, nature, peace, prayer, presence, richard rohr, silence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spiritual reading, spirituality, suffering, Summer Reading, and trust. Formats: eNews Article.

Greening Nature and Spirits

One spring morning, sitting at the table sipping tea, I saw green buds on tree branches hanging over the yard just outside the picture window. Those small fists of summer, clenched tight, must have been there for a while, but I hadn’t noticed. Seemingly overnight, the greening buds had swelled and stretched up and out, […]

May 05, 2021 by Mary van Balen 2 Comments
Categories: Breath, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Reading, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Listening, Loss, Love, Nature and spirituality, Non-duality, Personal Spiritual Deepening, Prayer, Retreat time, Self Compassion, Solitude, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, and spirituality in community. Tags: awareness, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, dormancy, earth, God, grounding, healing, Hildegard von Bingen, hope, Inspiration, joy, listening, love, Mary van Balen, Meditation, nature, peace, prayer, presence, rest, retreat, silence, slow work of god, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, spring, and trust. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

Coddiwomple

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” (Ursula Le Guin) Several years ago, I planned a road trip with a good friend to visit her son, my godson, during spring break. We had only four days to drive out to Idaho, visit […]

April 04, 2021 by Monica Maxon
Categories: Beloved Community, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Reading, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Coronavirus, Discernment, Listening, Love, Pandemic, Personal Spiritual Deepening, Pilgrimage, Prayer, Self Compassion, Solitude, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, and spirituality in community. Tags: awareness, coddiwomple, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, Covid-19, discernment, earth, God, grounding, healing, holy moments, hope, Inspiration, journey, joy, listening, love, Meditation, Monica Maxon, nature, openness, peace, pilgrimage, prayer, presence, retirement, retreat, Shalem staff, silence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, travel, trust, unexpected, and Ursula Le Guin. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

Knowing by Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (The Message) “That’s right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It won’t be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I […]

March 03, 2021 by Anita Davidson 1 Comment
Categories: Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Continuous Prayer, Discernment, Lent, Listening, Love, Parenthood, Prayer, Self Compassion, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, and spirituality in community. Tags: awareness, Book of Jeremiah, children, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, discernment, God, God's Beloved, God's Decree, grounding, Holy Week, hope, Inspiration, Jesus, joy, leadership, Lent, listening, love, nature, parenthood, parenting, peace, prayer, presence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, and trust. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

The Rainbow Connection

God said [to Noah]: “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the […]

February 02, 2021 by Anita Davidson 1 Comment
Categories: Community, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Living, Continuous Prayer, Coronavirus, Lent, Listening, Love, Nature and spirituality, Non-duality, Pandemic, and Parenthood. Tags: awareness, community, contemplation, contemplative tradition, discernment, earth, Genesis, God, grounding, healing, hope, Inspiration, joy, Lent, listening, love, nature, noah, peace, prayer, presence, rainbow connection, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, and trust. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

Fill Your Heart with Joy: The Journey of Pilgrimage at Home

This article is by Chuck McCorkle, Jackson Droney, and Margaret Benefiel A pilgrimage is a journey, of experience if not of geography, into new and seemingly uncharted territory. . . With vision somewhat more clear as a result of the journey, one can discover a richness within one’s own heritage which had previously been overlooked. […]

January 01, 2021 by Shalem Institute 4 Comments
Categories: Community, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Listening, Love, Nature and spirituality, Personal Spiritual Deepening, Pilgrimage, Prayer, Retreat time, Self Compassion, Solitude, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, spirituality in community, Virtual Pilgrimage, and Walking meditation. Tags: Assisi, awareness, Chuck McCorkle, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, discernment, earth, God, grounding, healing, hope, Inspiration, Jackson Droney, John of the Cross, joy, labyrinth, listening, love, Margaret Benefiel, Meditation, nature, peace, pilgrimage, prayer, presence, retreat, silence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Francis of Assisi, teresa of avila, trust, Virtual Pilgrimage, and walking. Formats: eNews Article.

The Sacredness of Time

As 2020 draws to a close and a new year opens before us, I’d like to offer some words that invite us to reflect on the sacredness of time. This year has been so hard, in ways unimaginable to us at the start of it: deepening climate crisis with both drenching rains and severe drought […]

December 12, 2020 by Barb Kelly
Categories: Christmas, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Coronavirus, Discernment, Listening, Loss, Love, Nature and spirituality, Non-duality, Pandemic, Prayer, Retreat time, Self Compassion, Service, social justice, Solitude, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual direction, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, spirituality at work, and spirituality in community. Tags: 2020, awareness, Christmas, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, discernment, Genesis, God, grief, grounding, healing, hope, Howard Thurman, Inspiration, Jesus, joy, leadership, listening, love, Meditation, nature, New Year's Eve, peace, prayer, presence, qadash, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Heschel, Renewal, silence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, suffering, and trust. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

Let This Light Grow in Us

Let it grow in us, this light, let it grow in all of our hearts, the light of our love for one another, let it grow and get stronger, let it not be dimmed but increased, becoming ever more radiant, reaching out to enfold all the people who need its blessing so badly. Let it […]

December 12, 2020 by Anita Davidson 2 Comments
Categories: Christmas, Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Leadership, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Reading, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Loss, Love, Nature and spirituality, Pandemic, Prayer, Self Compassion, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, and spirituality in community. Tags: awareness, Christmas, Christmas Star, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, dark and light, earth, God, grounding, healing, hope, Inspiration, Jesus, joy, light, listening, love, Meister Eckart, nature, peace, prayer, presence, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, Steven Charleston, suffering, trust, and Winter Solstice. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.

Celebrating the Triduum Together While Apart

Holy Thursday begins the Triduum—time set apart to reflect on the meaning of events from the Last Supper to the Resurrection, not only in the lives of Jesus and his disciples, but also in the Paschal Mystery unfolding in our lives. Following the great tradition observed by generations of Christians, we gather to commemorate these […]

April 04, 2020 by Mary van Balen
Categories: Community, Compassion, Contemplation in Action, Contemplative Living, Contemplative Spirituality, Continuous Prayer, Covid-19 Easter, Lent, Listening, Loss, Love, Non-duality, Personal Spiritual Deepening, Prayer, Retreat time, Self Compassion, Service, Spiritual Deepening, spiritual direction, spiritual discipline, spiritual growth, spirituality in community, and Triduum. Tags: awareness, community, compassion, contemplation, contemplative tradition, Covid-19 Easter, God, grounding, hope, Inspiration, Jesus, joy, listening, love, Meditation, peace, prayer, presence, religion, retreat, Service, silence, solitude, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, spirituality, suffering, Triduum, and trust. Formats: Friday Blog. Interest Areas: Friday Blog.