Tag Archives: paying attention

Blog

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…
Read more

First Day of Spring

First Day of Spring On March 21, the first day of meteorological spring, my husband and I got in our car for a change of scenery and went hiking at a nature preserve.  The emerging sun made us feel hopeful for an early spring.  As we walked and noticed the dead grass, leafless trees and…
Read more

Divine Sparks: Kindling the Fires of Ministry

Divine Sparks Kindling the Fires of Ministry Dr. Barbara Sutton, Director of Ministerial Formation and Field Education and a member of the faculty at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, was a visiting scholar with the Benedictine Center for 2017-2018. This reflection follows Dr. Sutton’s webinar by the same title, available online. Divine Sparks…
Read more

Quiet Nativity

I wondered how to do it differently this year,  How could I move through the holidays with gratitude rather than resentment, with a sense of peace even in the midst of activity?  After all, Jesus was born into the very messiness of human life, not into a place where all was neatly prepared and ready.  I longed to carry the Christ child in my heart this Advent season, but there was simply no room in the Inn. And so, that first evening, as we all sat in prayer, I asked God for the gift of peace.  I prayed that, in the space between gently released thoughts, the veil might be lifted from my eyes and Christ enter in. . . .

Read more

Dignity: An Uncomfortable Lesson in Hospitality

Dignity: An Uncomfortable Lesson in Hospitality Several years ago, I learned an uncomfortable lesson about hospitality. I was working in a congregation-based shelter for families experiencing homelessness in St. Paul. Because the 55 beds that Ramsey County had in its shelter were always full, congregations acted as “overflow shelters,” housing up to 20 people each…
Read more

The Awakening: What Is the Gift of Shadow? (Part 3 of 3)

This reflection continues a three-part exploration of the unknown in our inner worlds, sometimes called the shadow. Part 1 took up the question “What Is Shadow?” and parts 2 unpacked the question “What Do We Do with Shadow?.” Third and finally, “What Is the Gift of Shadow?” The Awakening What Is the Gift of Shadow? (Part…
Read more

The Summons: What Do We Do With Shadow? (Part 2 of 3)

This reflection continues an exploration of the unknown in our inner worlds, sometimes called the shadow. Part 1 took up the question “What Is Shadow?” while parts 2 and 3 follow the questions “What Do We Do with Shadow?” and “What Is the Gift of Shadow?” The Summons What Do We Do With Shadow? (Part 2…
Read more

The Unknown: What Is Shadow? (Part 1 of 3)

This reflection kicks off a three-part exploration of the unknown in our inner worlds, sometimes called the shadow. Part 1 takes up the question “What Is Shadow?” while parts 2 and 3 follow the questions “What Do We Do with Shadow?” and “What Is the Gift of Shadow?”

Read more

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…
Read more

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…
Read more