Going to San Diego, CA!

http://www.sdiworld.org/educational-event/2016-emerging-wisdom-educational-events/online-streaming

I am going to this Spiritual Directors International Conference in San Diego this weekend with a good friend from Corpus Christi, Mary Tom. We are going to be visiting with our friend Mary Jane, who used to live in Corpus Christi before moving to CA. Father Gregory Boyle will be one of the main speakers.

We leave on Thursday and return on Sunday night. I am getting excited!

Waking Up to Life!

I went to a 1 1/2 day workshop at a friend's house, with Marj Barlow facilitating and teaching. She is a counselor and someone who used to live in Corpus Christi and attend All Saints Episcopal Church. I fondly recall her teaching Sunday School classes about finding our strengths and building upon them, based upon Now, Discover Your Strengths, which has a test in it to determine them. I remember I sent a book to each of my children for this purpose!

The workshop was essentially about becoming more aware of oneself, especially as a woman. Marj recommended various books related to self-help (growth). She echoes writers such as Cynthia Bourgeault, Richard Rohr, Ken Wilber, and Beatrice Bruteau in saying that faithful meditation is the way to become more aware and grow our consciousness, especially so that the human race will grow beyond its current point.

Marj compared the seven chakras to goddesses, indicating that each is within us. I believe much of this is in Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women's Lives by Jean Shinoda Bolen, which I have not read. It sounds interesting.

She loves the books by Gay Hendricks, who advocates conscious living and loving. Marj emphasized The Big Leap and A Year of Living Consciously (a collection of Hendricks' quotes), though I have not read these either or any other books by Gay Hendricks. Marj recommends other books, with their main points listed, on her blog.

From these sources and from her own experience, Marj said her Formula for Success is:

1. Self-image: my mental view of myself
2. System of support: my environment and relationships
3. Expectations: broaden them!
4. Time: how we manage our time and energy. We create time NOW.
5. Emotions: what I experience now is my choice

Another way of expressing this was her cute way of saying UP Your Life!

• Show up
• Listen up
• Open up
• Grow up
• Lighten up
• Wise up
• Link up
• Offer up

It was a time well spent, with other women supporting each other.

You can learn more about what Marj Barlow believes and teaches by going here and clicking on the various links.

60th Birthday Trip!

Since I was born in 1950, it is always easy to figure out how old I am. 2010 is the year in which I will turn 60. My friend NKE was also born in 1950; we met as seventh graders while living on the Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan in 1962 and have been friends ever since, mainly because we both were good letter-writers. (Not so much now, but we talk once a week when cell phone minutes are free on Sundays.)

NKE and I are celebrating our 60th birthday year by going on a trip to New Mexico! We'll only be gone for eight days, beginning this Thursday. We are traveling while NKE is on her spring break from school. AND we're participating in TWO programs, including our first Exploritas (formerly Edlerhostel) trip.

On Thursday afternoon we will meet each other in the Alburquerque Airport. We will stay in Alburquerque for three nights and attend Richard Rohr's conference on "Emerging Christianity." The speakers for this conference are: Diana Butler Bass, Brian McLaren, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Richard Rohr.

When that conference concludes, we will drive to Gallup for the Exploritas trip, which is entitled "From Chaco Canyon Past to Zuni Present." We'll visit a Zuni village, cliff dwellings, and see petroglyphs.

In a little over six months, I'll be 60. NKE already is. We both have white hair, so we should fit into the Exploritas crowd!

Off to Albuquerque!

Tomorrow CB and I fly to Albuquerque to attend the conference there: "Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gates." It is exciting to attend that, especially with my husband coming along with me!

• We leave in the morning, when it will probably be foggy. We hope to get to the conference by the time it starts at 2 pm.

• A friend is staying at our house to take care of the dogs, especially puppy Maisie. That is a great relief to have someone here who will nurture them for the four days we are gone.
  

• I am pre-posting some inspirational quotes for the days that I am gone, so I hope friends will stop by to read these short thoughts each day. In that way, I'll still be connected to you all.

• I am looking forward to buying a cd set another friend recommended, which is about the theology of Duns Scotus, who was first recommended by my old spiritual director.

• Even with the Kindle, I am taking a "real" book along--The Eye of Spirit by Ken Wilber. Between the two, I should have enough to read on the plane rides.
  

January NaBloPoMo postings of BESTs

Well, since I've posted every day in January so far, I thought I might as well commit to posting every day for the rest of the month. That may only be difficult when CB and I go to the January conference in Albuquerque of "Following the Mystics" with Richard Rohr, James Finley, and Cynthia Bourgeault speaking, but I'll try to stay committed.

I still cannot believe that CB agreed to attend the talks with me. The last time he came with me, he would not pay or go to any of the lectures on the enneagram. So that is one of the BEST things that is happening: the Richard Rohr conference with CB!

Of course, one of the other BEST things is Maisie, the new (lost and found) puppy!

Conference: Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gates

Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate that leads to life and few there are who enter it.”

In this conference, we will follow the mystics through the mysterious process in which we realize God is the very reality of ourselves, others and all things. Seeing God in all things and all things in God, we experience the peace that surpasses understanding.

January 22-24, 2010
Albuquerque, NM

Speakers:
Richard Rohr, James Finley, and Cynthia Bourgeault

Mysticism Courses in San Antonio

Carl McColman reports about the Mystics Course in San Antonio that will be starting on Sept. 12. He gives a good description of the three year course here. I am starting the third year and so will be attending the first meeting on Russian Spirituality.

On Facebook, Carl brought to my attention an article in the San Antonio Newspaper where my name was mentioned about the course. First time I've been in the newspaper! A few days before, the reporter called and asked me about taking the Mystics Course, especially since I drive from Corpus Christi to attend the monthly meetings. Here's a mish-mash of info from our phone conversation:

Mystics course open to all faiths

By Abe Levy- San Antonio Express-News (8/29/09)

Jan Hilton starts most days sitting in a living room chair, facing an iconic image of Jesus created 1,400 years ago in a Middle Eastern monastery.

Before she prays and meditates there for 20 minutes, she looks into the eyes of the picture.

“It creates the right frame of mind,” she said. “It’s just remembering that in awareness of the quiet is the divine.”

A spiritual director at an Episcopal church in Corpus Christi, Hilton said that same feeling of connection to God is one that has been enriched by her interest in mysticism. She has enrolled in a class about modern mystics that will begin next month in San Antonio.

Called “Christian Mysticism: History, Wisdom and Insights,” the course will include scholars talking about mystics from various Christian faith traditions, organizers said. In addition to talks about mystics, time is set aside in class for participants to practice prayer and meditation.

The course begins Sept. 12 and continues for one Saturday a month through May. It is the last part of a larger three-year course about mysticism sponsored by the Contemplative Outreach of San Antonio, the Ecumenical Center for Religion and Health and the Oblate School of Theology. The course beginning in two weeks will focus on contemporary mystics, starting with those from the Russian Orthodox tradition, and includes Simone Weil and Thomas Merton.

The class is open to people of all faith backgrounds with an interest in Christian mysticism, regardless of whether they attended the earlier portions of the course, organizers said.

The course came about in response to a growing interest among Christians of many backgrounds united in a desire to have a deeper connection to God. Past classes explored ancient and medieval mystics, such as the teachings of desert monks, said Ed Alcott, the course coordinator and an adjunct professor at Oblate.

“Spirituality is really the reason for religion,” he said, “but we can get off topic and oftentimes we have deep spiritual people who can help bring us back.”

For Hilton, the course helped her continue the spiritual journey that began after her mother’s death 17 years ago. Not a regular at any church while growing up, she wanted to speak to God but didn’t know how. Now, she regularly quotes Father Thomas Keating, regarded as the founder of the centering prayer movement.

“I’m learning more about these people and admiring their depth of love and knowledge they attained,” she said. “And that there’s a commonality in mysticism among all religions that the source of all is one God and one love.”

Here’s the website about the program: www.christianmysticismsa.org.

Current books

Thanks to a blogger I do not recall, I read The Book Thief while coming back from Calgary a week or so ago. It was such a good book that I immediately loaned it to daughter MJ. I keep thinking about the ways ordinary Germans were criticized for any kindness given to Jews at the beginning of Nazi-dominated Germany. The narrator of the book is Death, who gives oddly poignant observations at times. This is a very good book.

The book I am currently reading is Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, a book that I bought used last November. I finally picked it up to read and am glad I did. It was published in 2001, and so its suppositions about the effects of computers, internet, and cell phones are minimal. However, I am finding the observations and extensive graphs and statistics interesting as I look at the changes from the 20th century to the present.

With the high drop out rate in Corpus Christi, it was interesting to read about the increase in high school graduates as compared to the number graduated in 1960:

"Although it is widely recognized that Americans today are better educated than our parents and grandparents, it is less often appreciated how massively and rapidly this trend transformed the educational composition of the adult population. As recently as 1960, only 41% of American adults had graduated from high school; in 1998, 82% had. In 1960, only 8% of American adults had a college degree; in 1998, 24% had. Between 1972 and 1998 the proportion of all adults with fewer than 12 years of education was cut in half, falling from 40% to 18%, while the proportion with more than 12 years doubled, rising from 28% to 50%, as the generation of Americans educated around the dawn of the 20th century (most of whom did not finish high school) passed from the scene and were replaced by the baby boomers and their successors (most of whom attended college)."

Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon and Schuster Paperbacks: NY, 2000.186-187.

At the same time, I am reading a book by an author recommended by Father Kelly Nemeck at the "Demystifyng Mysticism" conference: The Marriage of All and Nothing: Selected Writings of Barbara Dent. She writes of her personal experiences of the dark night of the soul, while still emphasizing that the resurrection is an integral part of spiritual development.

"Demystifying Mysticism" Conference

I am leaving for Calgary, Alberta, Canada tomorrow for the next week, but I want to put some of the highlights here from the "Demystifying Mysticism" Summer Institute at Oblate School of Theology--or I'll never do it! (Next year their Summer Institute will have Walter Brueggemann as the main speaker!)

Thomas Keating:

• a mystic is anyone with a human soul
• Human problem is that we don't have a big enough idea of God
• Mysticism is the reality of Divine Presence
• Due to God's humility, God wants to raise everyone up to the Divine level.
• The Word is vibrating, so we must vibrate at the same level to receive it. Thus we need to practice in be-ing.
• To gain Jesus' consciousness is the Kingdom of God
• Greatest thing we can give God is to allow God to love us
• Gift of contemplative prayer is already given to us. It is an innate gift. It is how to consent to whom you already are.
• Humans build walls, doors, boundaries--but there are NONE.
• atheism has its own dogmas
• God's presence is deepening in us all the time.
• Practice of prayer helps us to fall away from our habitual thoughts.
• 12 Steps of AA is the deepest experience of Christianity. We become willing for God to take away our faults as our own efforts will not succeed.
  

Jan Puckett on Buddhist Mysticism:

• Begin any activity with well wishes for others
• "Don't believe everything you think." --Pema Chodron
• wisdom + compassion = awareness

Susan Gibler on Contemporary Earth Mysticism:

• everything we do every day affects the earth
• what we do and think matters and affects each other
• our job is to love what God loves
• song from Jan Novotka:

May all I do today

be for the healing of the whole
May all I do today
Mend this broken world
May all I do today
Bring blessing on the Earth
May all I do today
Be for the good of all
All I do today.

Sylvia Maddox on Celtic Christianity:

• Thanks be to God that I have risen today
• Bless whatever we use or do so it might be used for God
• All activities are encircled in God's care; all is connected.

This is just a smattering of what I saw and heard. The overall emphasis was on sitting in silence with God as a daily practice, which will increase our awareness of our unity with all creation. Centering prayer or such silent practice is a response to God's love and a way to increase human consciousness to the next level.

June 24

June 24 was/is my dad's birthday. If he had not died in 2002, he would be 87 today. I always remember my parents' birthdays, even though they both have died.

In contrast, a vigorous Thomas Keating spoke at the conference at the age of 86. He flew in from London the day before he spoke and today flew to speak in Washington, DC.

Today is also the Feast of John the Baptist. I learned that this day is observed as John of the Cross' birthday, though Fr. Kelly Nemeck said it was either his birthday or his baptismal date (in 1542), because it is known that John's mother named him after John the Baptist.

Also, today was my son DC's last day of work. We hope he'll find a new job soon as a construction supervisor or assistant supervisor. At least his wife AA has a good job. They live in Austin.

And I am back from the conference "Demystifying Mysticism" in San Antonio. I left before the last talk that was given by Ron Rolheiser (which is currently going on), because I had to drive for 2 1/2 hours. All the way home the car thermometer registered at 102 degrees F. (The conference was excellent.)

The Week Ahead

This coming week seemed far away until now. Here it is! Tomorrow I am driving to San Antonio for two nights and three days. I'll be attending the Summer Institute at Oblate School of Theology, which this year is entitled "Demystifying Mysticism." The main speakers will be Fr. Thomas Keating
and Fr. Kelly Nemeck, OMI, founder of Lebh Shomea House of Prayer in Sarita, TX,

and Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, current president of Oblate School of Theology.
They are all authors of excellent books, especially about contemplative prayer.

I went to my first OST Summer Institute in 2000, when I was considering enrolling at the school. Back then it was sparsely attended and was set in the old part of the school. Now hundreds will be there--at the Oblate Renewal Center, which is also where I attended the Two Year Spiritual Formation Academy with Katherine E. and the recent Shalem retreat.


I'll return home on Wednesday night and then on Friday will fly to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to visit my cousin Margaret and attend her daughter's wedding in Banff. I'll write more about that right before I leave.

French Mystics

Today I drove to San Antonio (and back) with a friend to go to the talk given by Dr. Wendy M. Wright on "The French Mystics." This is Year 2 of Christian Mysticism: History, Wisdom and Insights. It is sponsored by both Oblate School of Theology (where I may someday earn my master's degree in Theology) and Contemplative Outreach of San Antonio.


I last heard Wendy Wright speak at one of the sessions of the (two year) Academy for Spiritual Formation sponsored by the Upper Room in 2002. Then, she spoke about Roman Catholicism for five days. What I remember most is an image of a toddler Jesus inside a heart, sweeping it out. I think this was on her talk of "The Sacred Heart." (She even wrote a book entitled Sacred Heart: Gateway to God.) Being a Protestant, this emphasis upon the heart was new to me. I was surprised at how much I treasured the idea of baby Jesus sweeping out my heart! That still echoes within me, I don't know why. I have tried to find a copy of that picture from the middle ages, but have been unable to do so.

Today Dr. Wright whetted my curiosity about the French mystics I know little about. (Though she ended the discussion with Brother Lawrence and Jean Pierre de Caussade, whom I love and admire.)

I'll copy some of my notes for you below and list the main themes in each type of spirituality.

Characteristics of French Schools of Spirituality
1. Christocentric--want to "live" Jesus
--very Marian
2. Personal and ecclesial reform
3. Missionary
4. Male-female partnerships

Salesian Spirituality
Francis de Sales (1567-1622) and Jane de Chantal (1572-1641)
1. Christian humanism
--hearts are made to beat with God's heart's rhythm
2. Matthew 11:29-30
--Live Jesus! (which Francis and Jane wrote at the top of letters)
3. Little virtues such as gentleness, humility and patience
--The disciplines you don't choose are the most profoundly transformative.
4. Two arms of love--for God and neighbors
5. Friendship
--A virtue that changes us and helps us to grow, to make our hearts more generous.
6. Laity

Vincentian Spirituality
Vincent de Paul (1580-1660) and Louise de Marillac (1591-1660)
1. Luke 4: liberating vision of Jesus
2. God is present in our actions
--"God is love; we must come to him by love."
3. The poor
--"The poor are the privileged mediators of salvation"
4. Firm and flexible
--Be firm in your goals, but gentle and flexible in working towards them.
5. Rich and poor--connect through relationships

French (Berullian) School of Spirituality
Pierre de Berulle (1575-1629)
Jean Jacques Olier (1608-1657)
Jean/John Eudes (1601-1680)
1. Abstract mysticism
--influenced by neo-platonic thinking
2. States of Jesus
--enter by prayer into different times of Jesus' life
3. Servitude and Adoration (Nothingness and Grandeur)
--human as nothing; God adoringly Other
4. Clerical reform

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Rosary
Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) and Claude de la Columbiere (1641-1682)
--visions of Jesus asking for devotions to his heart
Louis de Montfort (1673-1716)
--codified and promulgated the Rosary

Later
Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1614-1691)

And she did not have time to discuss the controversies of Jansenism and Quietism.
~~~~~~~~~
Well, if anyone ever reads all these links, it will take a LONG time. I myself need to come back someday to read them.

Big Wedding Weekend

Husband CB and I are going to San Antonio on Friday and will be there until Sunday for a big wedding celebration for good friends of son DC and wife AA. This is the last of "The Five" guys to get married. These were five boys who remained friends through elementary, middle, and high schools. They shared classes, soccer teams, and church youth group together. Each has been a groomsman in the other's wedding, and this Saturday is the last of "The Five" weddings.

"The Five" at DC and AA's wedding 9-2-06
WW, CD, DC (my son), SW, BT
BT is getting married on Saturday!

It is a very sweet and romantic story about BT marrying HL. They had never met until they walked down the aisle together at DC and AA's wedding! BT had not been able to get to Austin for the rehearsal dinner the night before, and so he only appeared in time for the wedding! After that, they became friends and then engaged.

Due to the history of "The Five," their parents are invited to Friday night's rehearsal dinner. For us, it probably is also because both DC and AA are in the wedding parties. And I have been asked to give the meal blessing there.

The wedding is on Saturday night. Youngest daughter MJ is going to come with us, since she is very fond of "The Five" guys, who were all her big brothers as she grew up. (They are ten years older than she is.)

It will be a happy and enjoyable weekend!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conveniently, I can also attend the monthly mystics talk in San Antonio, as I will be there on Saturday morning. This is Year 2 of Christian Mysticism: History, Wisdom and Insights. It is sponsored by both Oblate School of Theology (where I may someday earn my master's degree in Theology) and Contemplative Outreach of San Antonio. Saturday's talk will be on "Dominican Spirituality: Dominic and Catherine of Sienna."