Do you desire to learn about spiritual direction, what you can expect in spiritual guidance, the value of silence, and how spiritual direction cultivates peace? Make time for a few minutes with Una Agnew, SSL, with three new short videos.

With poetic, sincere wisdom, Sister Agnew adds to the “Spiritual Directors International Learns From…” FREE video series. Filmed during the SDI educational events in Europe; Ireland, Agnew was the conference spiritual director.

SDI Learns from Una Agnew, SSL: "Value of Silence"

SDI Learns from...Una Agnew, SSL: "Cultivating Peace"

SDI Learns from...Una Agnew, SSL

About Dr. Una Agnew, SSL
A spiritual guide, she is an apostolic religious Sister, member of the Saint Louis Sisters of Ireland, Associate Professor Emerita of the Spirituality Department, Milltown Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Dublin, Ireland, and author of The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh: A Buttonhole in Heaven?. During the Spiritual Directors International in Europe; Ireland educational events where she was the conference spiritual director, SDI had the opportunity to visit with her for this video series. In these three videos she offers wisdom about the value of silence, speaks about what spiritual guidance is, and how spiritual direction cultivates peace, prayer, and contemplative practice.

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Spiritual Directors International creates educational videos for the general public to tell the story of spiritual direction, which is also known as spiritual companionship, spiritual guidance, and spiritual accompaniment.

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To celebrate Chanukah, the Jewish Festival Of Lights, Spiritual Directors International member Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann from Canada offers a poem she wrote December 3, 2010.

On Being A Lover

Do you remember those days, right around
the beginning of the romance,
when you simply couldn't remove
your rose-coloured glasses with the
rainbow frames? When you were flooded
with hope and goodwill and a generosity
that emanated from you and cast a golden light
for miles? Remember how, every time you looked at
your lover you simply saw the beauty in him,
his very best? And how he basked in your
love, and indeed, kept inching towards becoming
his very best?
Remember when all the lists of your grievances
or demands that he be different,
were burned in the passion
that danced from you, and when,
because he felt so joyous about
your witnessing, hope and goodwill and generosity
emanated from him too?
 
[Do you think this is how Shekhinah feels all the time?
Especially around Chanukah, when we are all
potentially candles that will not be extinguished?
For the soul of man is the candle of God.]

                   – Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann 
 
*Shekhinah: God's indwelling Presence, sometimes referred to as the Feminine side of God
*Chanukah: Festival Of Lights, celebrating the triumph of light over darkness.
*Proverbs 20:27

Which lines from "On Being A Lover" speak to you?

Please share your response, or your own Chanukah reflections and traditions with the SDI community. Add a story or comment to this post.

The night before the journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, I slept restlessly. I felt anxious about crossing into Palestinian Territories through heavily armed border gates, past the haunting huge wall that seems to go on forever separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem.  As a fledgling pilgrim group from Africa, Europe, North, and South America, I knew the day would rattle us. Shaking us out of our spiritual comfort zone, we would witness a divided Israel up close and hear stories from local people about how the barriers affect living in the West Bank.

I also worried about the olive tree. We planned on planting a tree as a visible sign of hope and a gift of peace from the Spiritual Directors International community. I tossed and turned in my sleep, fretting about the health of the tree after we planted it. Who will water it and help it grow?

When dawn finally arrived, I was grateful for the pilgrim community and the contemplative practice time we spent together, preparing us for the day. My huge anxiety from the night before shrunk to a little distress. I silently breathed in and out the phrase, “Fear not,” while boarding the bus, not knowing yet that God would offer courage in the dark skies overhead.

No kidding. A rainbow appeared on our way to Bethlehem.

Not only that, the one time we experienced rain during the entire interfaith pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine was when we traveled to Bethlehem. The rainbow and rain lifted my spirits, reminding me that God guided the pilgrimage and that people all over the world were praying with us and for us just as we were praying with and for you.

Not only would God be present with us, but also with the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Muslims, the Jews, the Christians—with everyone—during that day and into the far future. God would care for the olive tree. And sure enough, a Palestinian family helped us plant the olive tree. They expressed their gratitude for the gift of a tree that now grows in their field as a reminder of hope.

At the end of an intense day in and around Bethlehem, I could hold my anxiety about the future of Israel and Palestine with a new kind of hope. Not the clean, clear, logical kind of hope that lives in my head, but a hope that is embodied, earthy like the mud that we planted the tree in. My body knows that the graffiti-covered wall that now separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem previously was open land supporting simple shepherds who once noticed a strange, starry, sign of hope in the night sky. I squinted into the hillside and imagined a landscape where only olive trees separated Bethlehem and Jerusalem, remembering that in this season, “with God, all things are possible.”

Like a simple shepherd, I invite us to look up, look around, and notice signs of hope during this sacred season. It has been a brutal year for many people and for the planet. Where are you noticing signs of hope?

Please add your stories of hope to the blog.

The Interfaith Amigos, Pastor Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Sheikh Jamal Rahman, offer their pilgrimage reflections. Allow their images and words to penetrate your heart, wherever you are, right now.

Pilgrim Guides: The Interfaith Amigos (L-R): Sheikh Jamal Rahman, Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Pastor Don Mackenzie

A Journey to the Heart: Inner Paths to Compassion, Connection, and Peace Pilgrimage
Interfaith Pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine
27 October - 5 November 2010

Sheikh Jamal Rahman
Spiritual Reflections

I am grateful for spiritual insights I received from the Spiritual Directors International pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine:

The fifty or so pilgrims who gathered in Jerusalem and  travelled to religious sites in Israel and Palestine, bonded quickly The seekers felt safe in sharing diverse thoughts and feelings about religion, spirituality and politics. The caring and respect for the other in the group was genuine. An authentic community evolved. I was inspired to reflect on insights by two Masters. The Buddha says that a true community grows out of a circle of “friends who love the truth” and Rumi asks us to “come out of the circle of time and enter the circle of love.”

The packed program of daily visits to sites, and lectures, was happily balanced by twice a day meditations and spiritual practices. Consequently, both mind and heart were nourished. We worked, as Rumi might say, in visible and invisible worlds. Both realms are sacred and necessary. I reflected on my personal need to balance work in my outer life with work in invisible realms. We are like fish out of water thrashing and quivering on the bank. From time to time, we need to dive in the life-giving waters of silence and spiritual practices.

The brokenness and fragility of the situation in Israel and Palestine were easy to discern. Feelings of fear and anger that fester on both sides were palpable. I pondered on a Quranic verse that points out that when there is chronic frustration, hopelessness and helplessness, it leads to a human condition in which “it’s not that the eyes are blind but their hearts…” ( 22:46). When this happens, the use of force and violence clenches the heart even more. Reason is helpful but will not persuade the heart to open. Only that which comes from the heart can open another heart. What does this mean?

The answer came in the remarkable series of outside speakers who SDI chose to enlighten us about their citizen projects.

• A young American woman brings together heartbroken Israeli and Arab families to reach out to the other and together talk about the senseless violence that have claimed the lives of their children.
• An Israeli woman graciously converted her house, previously owned by a displaced Palestinian family, into a school for poor Palestinian children and a center for peace.
• A Palestinian Arab living in Bethlehem has courageously built a school and institute adjacent to the political wall. There, the arts of peace and reconciliation are taught and practiced.

The heart knows that things that appear to be apart are really one. It opens up to experiential messages and heart-felt actions that restore love and compassion to a relationship that has been torn apart through fear and hatred.

Rabbi Ted Falcon
A Note on Our Spiritual Pilgrimage

Sacred space, intentions for personal deepening, and a community of seekers—it’s a recipe for a spiritual pilgrimage. And spiritual pilgrimage is always an invitation to move into unchartered territory; it will always be filled with unexpected wonders as well as challenge. It turned out that this journey invited me to meet the far less Jewish areas of Israel, and experience the worlds of East Jerusalem and Nazareth. Much of the time, I felt as much in the minority with my kippah as I have felt in Seattle, and that was an unwelcome surprise.

But what delighted me most was the open-hearted nature of my fellow pilgrims. Representing a wide range of mostly Christian backgrounds, all seemed available to be truly present in sacred space, and to contribute to that space through both formal and informal sharings with the group. I remember that Harrison Owen, the originator of Open Space Technology, created that model after noticing that often the most significant sharing at conferences took place during the coffee breaks. On our pilgrimage, I found those special unscheduled moments unfolding on the bus, during walks, or at meals. During these spontaneous conversations there was the space to share lives, concerns, and responses to the trip we were experiencing.

In some ways, it seems to me that pilgrimage transcends place. Particular settings provided the foundation for insights, teachings, and awakenings that opened our minds and our hearts far beyond those specific places. What we discovered at the most sacred moments were glimpses of the Eternal Loving Presence that we serve, when we are awake, as vehicles. Our Israel Palestine Pilgrimage provided the holy ground where we could celebrate the One awaiting us always.

Pastor Don Mackenzie
A Reflection on the Spiritual Directors International Pilgrimage to Israel and the West Bank

How can it be that Jerusalem, one of the holiest cities in the entire world, is also host to what seems to be the most intractable conflict one could imagine? How can it be? Everything I might think or say about our 2010 SDI pilgrimage to the Middle East fits into the frame of that question. Everything I experienced there fits into the frame of that question.

A holy site, any holy site in the world, is a place where something important happened, something with spiritual and theological significance. Often that significance points to the potential for some kind of healing, some kind of stepping away from brokenness and stepping toward a coming back together.

The three large churches built over places important to Jesus’ life–the Church of the Annunciation, the Church in Nazareth built over the suggested site where the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to become the mother of Jesus, the Church of the Nativity, the church in Bethlehem built over the suggested site of the manger where Jesus was born, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the church in Jerusalem built over the suggested site where Jesus was crucified and buried–serve as good examples of my theme. Whether or not any of the things that are supposed to have happened at those sites really did happen at those exact places, is secondary to the hope that when one is at the site, one is experiencing a kind of energy that might actually make a positive difference in one’s life. People stand in line for hours to see and touch these places and they do that not because they are simply curious. I think the vast majority of those pilgrims are hoping that they can actually take “something” away from that site, take it home and use it for some healing or transforming purpose. This is, after all, the purpose of a pilgrimage, is it not? We go to a place because we hope it will make a difference, bring healing, bring transformation.

It is hopeful to me that Jerusalem, in spite of the terribly heavy load of conflict, also bears within its soul, the capacity to rise up from that and, once again, be a beacon of hope and healing in our troubled world. Each of us, filling the role of pilgrim, has been given the precious gift of being present at sites in Israel and the West Bank in the company of other pilgrims and have returned with a measure of the hope that was there to be found. Thanks be to God!

Links
Blog
Photographs
Pilgrimage invitation
SDI Learns From...Videos

Please share your thoughts; add a comment.

Please pause and ponder with these reflections, allowing yourself to connect with this pilgrimage, wherever you are, right now. Please add comments, and check back for additional sharing from pilgrims.

A Journey to the Heart: Inner Paths to Compassion, Connection, and Peace Pilgrimage
Interfaith Pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine
27 October - 5 November 2010

Links
Blog
Photographs
Pilgrimage invitation

Stories
Ginny Going [North Carolina, USA]
We were fifty pilgrims from four continents led by Sheikh Jamal Rahman, Pastor Don Mackenzie, and Rabbi Ted Falcon, three religious leaders brought together by the events of 9/11/01. Known as “The Interfaith Amigos” their unique blend of spiritual wisdom and humor openly addressed the usual taboos of interfaith dialogue—the awkward parts of each tradition—in order to create a more authentic conversation.

Each morning and evening we gathered to experience a contemplative practice led by various participants. We prayed, chanted, laughed, cried, listened, learned, wrestled with difficult sights and difficult feelings. We planted an olive tree on behalf of peace in a small Palestinian village in sight of the controversial wall being built by the Israel government to enclose Palestinian territories. Olive trees take a long time to mature and bear fruit, as does peacemaking. We met and heard the stories of Jews and Muslims working tirelessly for peace and reconciliation in this beautiful and torn land.

Karuna Gerstein
This was an experience that changed me, and will continue to unfold me. I am touched be the generosity of spirit of each pilgrim on this trip, and of the wisdom and teaching from our beautiful teachers that will continue to speak to me. Thank you SDI for putting this pilgrimage together and allowing us to offer peace and prayers to a region so rich and beautiful. I am truly blessed. Shalom, Salaam, Shanti, Peace.

Susan Izard [USA]
The pilgrimage was a great blessing for me. Walking among the sites listening to the Interfaith story made me realize how limited my own way of seeing things can be! I loved that we were constantly encouraged to keep an open heart and to reach for the both/and and not stay stuck in the either/or. The trip was a story of wisdom unfolding and continues to be that story as I engage in my work here at home. I will preaching on our trip at the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service this Sunday. Writing the sermon is a wonderful way to put some thoughts on paper and remember. Like Karuna, I feel truly blessed. Shalom, Salaam, Peace.

Please share, and add your comments and stories.

LtoR-Dena Merriam, Founder of GPIW, Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, Cochair of GPIW, Swami Veda, Founder of AHYMSIN, India

In early October, I was blessed to be one of more than sixty contemplative practitioners and teachers from a broad range of eastern and western religious and spiritual traditions who gathered in California, USA, for four days of shared prayer and practice, discussion, and spiritual friendship. We came together from across the United States, and from Canada, Japan, Denmark, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, for the third gathering of the Contemplative Alliance, convened by the Global Peace Initiative of Women to explore how to bring the wisdom and compassion that emerge from deep contemplative practice to bear on the challenges facing our nation and world today.
 
During our final morning session together, I found myself feeling many of the same feelings I’d had at the Contemplative Alliance’s two previous gatherings: inspired, stimulated, energized, hopeful. I was aware of another feeling as well; I felt disturbed. The words of an old spiritual kept going through my mind and heart: “God’s gonna trouble the waters.”
 
I knew, with a deeper certainty than ever before, that contemplative practice itself is profound service–that our individual and collective prayer and meditation practices are urgently needed to keep open the portals for grace to pour into the world. And I knew, with renewed conviction, that most of us, in this time, are called to be what Caroline Myss calls “mystics outside of monasteries”--to be engaged in the life of the world, to express the fruits of our practice in our own unique lives and spheres of influence, to live in such a way that our inner and outer lives move seamlessly together like the path of a mobius strip.
 
And so I found myself feeling grateful for my inner experience of disturbance – even joyful. The invitation to fuller and more awakened participation is a precious, precious gift.
 
--Rev. Diane Berke, Cofounder and spiritual director, One Spirit Learning Alliance|One Spirit Interfaith Seminary

A special thank you to Janelle Surpris for providing photographs.

LtoR-Sakena Yacoobi, Founder of Afghan Institute of Learning, Linda Grdina of the Fetzer Institute

LtoR-Swami Atmarupananda of the Ramakrishna Mission in California, USA, Imam Bashar Founder of Civilizations Exchange Cooperation Foundation

LtoR-Philip Hellmich of Search for Common Ground, Adam Bucko Founder of Reciprocity Foundation, Michelle Nazar of Spa Spirit

LtoR-Taimoor Mumtaz Khan -Sufi Order of Pakistan, Sraddhalu Ranade of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in India, Swami Atmarupananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, California, USA

Speaker-Chika Matsumoto of Shinnyo-en USA

LtoR - Barbara Cushing of the Kalliopeia Foundation, Dr. Mary-Faeth Chenery of GPIW Australia

Speaker -Christopher Peters, President of Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development

LtoR-Prof. Douglas Burton-Christie of Loyola Marymount University, California, USA, Sister Shireen Chada of the Brahma Kumaris USA, Ven. Chang Ji of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association

Please join the conversation by adding your thoughts to this blog post.

Thomas Merton wrote, “Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.”

Meeting regularly with a spiritual director contributes to building a capacity for compassion in our communities. By nurturing compassion in ourselves and each other, we participate in moving the world toward peace.

On Thursday, November 18, 2010, The Charter for Compassion celebrates a one-year anniversary and features an incredible line-up of speakers with a live webcast of TEDPrize at the United Nations. The webcast will be available on the Charter site to view on demand.

Charter for Compassion
On November 12, 2009, author Karen Armstrong and a global group of collaborators unveiled an international initiative to promote compassion. Armstrong is a TED [Technology, Education, Design] award winner with the following wish, “I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.”

Please join Spiritual Directors International in raising the global awareness of spiritual direction as a powerful way to cultivate compassion.

Join SDI at "Cultivating Compassion" educational events in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 28 - May 2, 1011.

What does compassion mean to you? Share your stories of how spiritual direction cultivates compassion by replying in the comment field below.

The morning of November 1, 2010, fourteen people interested in the intersection of spiritual guidance and justice gathered at The David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, USA following "The Mindful Lawyer" conference. This is the question we engaged:

Can spiritual guidance offer a valuable contribution to the field of law and justice, and everyone who engages in the work of justice?

Mindful and contemplative, we each responded to the word "justice" until everyone settled in a space of stillness, creating this image. Please ponder which words speak to your heart of compassionate care and just action.

Our morning was rich and valuable weaving poetry, stories, wrestling with real issues for the field of law and justice, naming the challenges and gift of where mindfulness practice, prayer, or contemplative practice can lead, and the value of spiritual guidance. It was good to be together in this very important topic and work.

Thank you extends to all the participants in the first SDI "Spiritual Guidance and Justice Institute" in Berkeley, California. SDI believes that yes, indeed, spiritual guidance offers valuable contributions to justice. To everyone who engages this pertinent topic--thank you. We look forward to learning together and from each other.

Spiritual Direction

Wing-tips touching, we fly,

the eagle’s view.

You see my world

through my eyes.

And sometimes, I need us

to return to earth,

so I can look into you

looking into me,

and I can cry

with relief, because I see

that you see

my world,

and I can see

that my vision

creates a light

in your eyes.

-- Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann  

Please share books, DVD's and resource suggestions for the field of justice, law, lawyering, education, and spiritual guidance. Simply add a comment to this post. SDI will develop a resource page in our Web library dedicated to this field of inquiry and engagement.

"A Festival of Lights"
Diwali (or Deepavali) is a major Hindu holiday, and a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Many legends are associated with Diwali. It is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Lights," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within an individual. Diwali is celebrated on the new moon day (approx fifteenth day) of the month Kartika.India

May each of us seek to shine light and compassion in our own lives to embrace the truth of God's unconditional love for us all. Happy Diwali!

The Inaugural National Symposium of the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction was held in Melbourne, Australia, on 29 and 30 October. The theme of the Symposium was "Exploring contemporary spirituality and its impact on the practice of spiritual direction". Academics, researchers, the staff of spiritual direction formation programs, spiritual directors, and other interested parties participated in the two-day Symposium. Many themes explored in the papers will interest the wider spiritual direction community. A summary of the twenty papers is available on the AECSD website. The papers are available to be downloaded in one PDF file. --Stephen Truscott, SM, PhD.

Image: Marie Thompson, the President of the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction, welcomes participants to the Inaugural National Symposium. Photo taken by Patrick Wright

Links
National Symposium of the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction
Locate a spiritual direction enrichment, formation, or training program in Australia