Tag Archives: conversation

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Engaged Listening

Engaged Listening as a first step toward addressing racism As we live through a time of pandemic and protest, I revisited the Rule of Benedict to read  what wisdom Benedict might speak into these tumultuous days. I found guidance right at the outset of the Prologue: Listen. Listen is the first word of the Rule…
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Writing from the Center | Revision: Writing Until You Find Your Meaning

One of the exciting aspects of writing is the process of discovery also known as revision.  An idea or image comes to mind, and we sit down to describe it because we want to remember it or share with others. Yet, it often happens that as we write, what seemed so clear and evident at first seems to fade. Or we suddenly find numerous threads of ideas with no pattern.  When that happens, just keep writing until you come to whatever feels like the end.  At this point you are ready to embrace the process of revision – the nearly magical process of discovery. Like a sculptor standing before a block of marble, you chip away at the mass of words on the paper or screen.

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Praying with Pictures: One Person’s Experience with SoulCollage®

Praying with Pictures One Person's Experience with SoulCollage® From time to time the Benedictine Center invites program participants to share the spiritual reflections that emerged from their experience at St. Paul’s Monastery. This reflection is by Rachel Gableman about her time with Barbara Sutton’s Monthly SoulCollage® Circle. Where I Begin Stubbornness is a steady companion…
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Can Small Acts of Courage and Compassion Really Save the World?

Can Small Acts of Courage and Compassion Really Save the World? I have to be honest. I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to all-encompassing spiritual proclamations. You could call me a “yes, but…” doubting Thomas-type person when conversations get a bit “spirited” or overly idealistic. And my friends and I sometimes do…
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Conversatio: Living Conversion through Hospitality

S. Kathleen Atkinson OSB is the founder of Ministry on the Margins and keynote presenter for the Benedictine Center's 2020 Radical Hospitality Series (Feb. 27 - Mar. 1). Conversatio Living Conversion through Hospitality After returning from four months in Guatemala, I knew I couldn’t go back to ministry as it had been. I needed to…
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Everyday Prophets

Everyday Prophets When we think ‘prophetic’ we need not always think grandly about public tasks. . . It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination. ― Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination When I hear the word prophet, I often imagine a bearded man shouting out the Truth with a…
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Darkness as Essential to Transformation

Darkness as Essential to Transformation I have often described myself as a transformation junky.  The resurrection narrative has always been my deep draw to the Christian faith.  I believe in Martin Luther King’s view, that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice,” and I have worked for that justice…
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The Search for Vitality and Ways Spiritual Direction Can Help

The Search for Vitality and Ways Spiritual Direction Can Help “I’ve had more energy around work this past month, but I’m worried because I feel some of that old intensity coming back.  I want to continue experiencing the vitality of living from my centered self.  I’m afraid that I will slip back into the old…
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Being Real (Part 3): Earned Wisdom for My Five-Years-Ago-Self

Recently, my long-time friend and colleague, Eily Marlow and I developed a day-long workshop called Being Real: Practicing Humility, Courage, and Authenticity in Everyday Life. The stories and the challenges that Eily and I shared as we were preparing for the workshop have stayed with me and continued to evolve over time. So have the lessons…
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Being Real (Part 2): Bridging the Gap Between Our Inner and Outer Lives

Recently, my long-time friend and colleague, Eily Marlow and I developed a day-long workshop called Being Real: Practicing Humility, Courage, and Authenticity in Everyday Life. The stories and the challenges that Eily and I shared as we were preparing for the workshop have stayed with me and continued to evolve over time. So have the lessons…
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