“Always we begin again.” –Rule of St. Benedict.
Late winter/early spring is a wonderful time to begin again. The frenzy to jump into the new year is behind us and we can settle into clarity about what really matters to us in 2021.
Join us in this virtual contemplative retreat to return to the basics. Breath, silence, rhythm. We will spend time reflecting on where we’ve been and where we want to go, but most important—where we are now. Join us for a day of reflection and discussion interlaced with silence, focused on looking deeply at what matters and how that can be realized in each day. Annie Dillard writes, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
We will experience this time together in silence and community, then Begin Again to live our lives, with greater understanding of the rhythms of the day.
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Facilitator:
Sharon Dunn
Returning to the Present Moment
with Elota Patton
One of the greatest causes of anxiety is making negative predictions about the future. What if, instead of living in a future that rarely turns out the way you predict, you could live with greater peace at the edge of the unknown?
Many spiritual paths focus on bringing the meditator/prayer back to the breath, back to the now, back to Source, back to the present moment. Elota Patton, Licensed Professional Counselor, offers an introductory exploration of the deeply meditative process developed by Connirae Andreas, author of The Wholeness Process.
This work lies at the intersection of personal growth and spiritual practice, and participants will learn about and practice this innovative path to calming the mind, healing the heart, and deepening the self by connecting embodied experience with the Mystery of all that is.
Please join us!
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Facilitator:
Elota Patton, LPC, M.Ed. MFA
Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
– Albert Schweitzer
With the stress of the pandemic and the havoc it has wrought on cherished holiday traditions, we invite you to step away from it all to join us for a simple celebration to honor nature’s rhythms and the return of the light on the Winter Solstice*.
Let this be an hour to come together for a beautiful blend of silence, poetry, and conversation to reflect on the season and what helped rekindle your light this year.
Thank you for joining us for our free Winter Solstice gathering! If you missed it and want to be inspired by the poems and reflections we used, you can access the PDF here.
A Series of Virtual Conversations with Spiritual Leaders
“in your light we see light continue your hesed [unending love]”
—Psalm 36: 9-10
Recording of January 14th’s Session with Pastor John Garland now Available!
In a 90-minute interactive experience with us, Pastor John will share the profound impact singing and praying the Psalms has had on both the parishioners and the asylum-seekers they serve at the San Antonio Mennonite Church.
Through stories and an opportunity to experience the practice, Pastor John invites us to consider the Psalms as a blueprint for healing trauma and a pathway for transformation.
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Come Experience the Psalms as a Pathway for Transformation as We Embark Upon This New Year.
To learn more about the healing work Pastor John Garland and the San Antonio Mennonite Church is doing, read this powerful article from faithandleadership.com.
Go Deeper:
Join us for two 1-hour follow up experiences with Pastor John Garland on using the Psalms for healing trauma:
January 21st and 28th from 7pm to 8pm.
$40
($80 for all three sessions)
John Garland
Each morning he leads Psalm-based prayers, works with those held in immigration prisons, and supports the community of asylum-seekers centered in the church.
He is currently doing doctoral work on communal trauma, spiritual resilience, and the Psalms. He is a fellow at the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. He is the National Association of Social Workers' Texas 2020 ``Public Citizen of the Year.``
Most recently he has traveled extensively in Central America, visiting rural churches on the border of Honduras and Guatemala that are living through violence, poverty, and governmental failures. Mennonites are pacifists. John pastors with an applied theology of Christianity as a trauma-transforming faith movement, he reads Scripture as divinely inspired through--and for--deeply traumatized communities, and understands hospitality, story, and prayer-centered community as the most powerful tools of healing.
John's wife is a high school principal a few blocks from their downtown home and he has two daughters in the elementary school down the street.
Before San Antonio, they taught school together outside of McAllen, on the Texas-Mexico border, where he also pastored a little Spanish-speaking church.
NOTE: Session will be recorded, so you don’t need to be present in order to enjoy Pastor John Garland’s wisdom.
(You’ll have 30 days to view the video.)
If you missed our first two speakers, Rabbi Rami Shapiro and Jan Richardson, you can still register for a link to the recording HERE.