Spiritual Directors International member The Rev. Eileen Epperson, MA, MDiv, is featured in The Lakeville Journal (Salisbury, Connecticut, USA) article: “Talking, Listening and Perhaps Ending Religious Violence” by Patrick L. Sullivan. Originator of The Forgiveness Process® she explains the often misunderstood concept of forgiveness:

“It has nothing to do with the other person. … Individuals feel that by forgiving they are somehow losing or condoning something. Epperson compares a person who is stuck on what she calls “the Velcro of the past” to a hamster on a wheel, running furiously and getting nowhere. We can step out of that by declaring we are getting off the hamster wheel.”

Epperson believes that “When you listen, people feel safe enough to say what they need to say.” She will be in Melbourne, Australia 3-9 December 2009 with a similar message for the Parliament of the World’s Religions  

Read the entire article on the TCExtra Web site...

Dorothy is in need of your prayers; adrenal glands completely shut down, severe headaches, Cushing's disease & a miracle will allow her to walk again; her daughter, Leigh started new chemo pill for breast cancer; Bruce, God's favor; & Jim, a touch from God. Thank you & we will pray for you also.

I need spiritual guidance or direction to battle sloth.

 

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

Jamal Rahman is originally from Bangladesh, and he currently serves as cominister of Interfaith Community Church, adjunct faculty of Seattle University School for Theology and Ministry and cohost of Interfaith Talk Radio in Seattle, Washington, USA. He is the author of several books, including the Spiritual Directors International book, Out of Darkness, Into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources. 

Dr. Janet Ruffing, RSM is a founding Coordinating Council member of Spiritual Directors International. She serves as professor of Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at Fordham University in New York, USA, as well as forming spiritual directors all over the world. Janet has written four books including Spiritual Direction: Beyond the Beginnings and published more than seventy articles on spirituality, spiritual direction and supervision, mysticism, and religious life.

To be the first to view new educational videos, add your name to the YouTube subscription service for sdiworld videos.

Thank you Tara Owens from Colorado, USA and Pegge Bernecker from Alaska, USA for spear-heading this educational outreach program! 

Spiritual Directors International member, Ruth Barton, describes how Protestants are benefiting from spiritual direction and contemplation:

In Protestant circles at the time, anyone talking about solitude, silence, contemplation, or centering prayer was assumed to be embracing some sort of New Age philosophy, or to be well on their way to becoming a Buddhist. But my previous methods for seeking God—Bible study, prayer journals, more and better preaching, self-help books, small group gatherings—were coming up empty. And as I said yes to the invitation to solitude and silence, as challenging as it was, I experienced powerful results in my life that I could not have experienced in any other way.

Read Ruth's entire article on the Sojourners magazine Web site.

Spiritual Directors International launched an educational series of videos aimed at the general public to tell the story of spiritual direction.

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI is originally from Canada, and he currently serves as the President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of many books, including Holy Longing, which he mentions in this interview. Sister Mary Ann Scofield, RSM is a founding member of Spiritual Directors International and has been involved in the Mercy Center Art of Spiritual Direction internship in Burlingame, California, as well as forming spiritual directors all over the world for decades.

To be the first to view new educational videos, add your name to the YouTube subscription service for sdiworld videos.

Kudos to Tara Owens from Colorado, USA and Pegge Bernecker from Alaska, USA for spear-heading this educational outreach program! 

 

Ring. Pause. Ring. Pause. Ring. Pause. During a retreat at Thich Nhat Hahn’s Plum Village in France, I learned how to use everyday sounds to practice returning my attention to the present moment. When the telephone would ring during a community meal, everyone on retreat stopped whatever we were doing – we held our forks in mid-bite and ended conversation mid-sentence. The dining hall became silent while the telephone rang three times. On the fourth ring, a Vietnamese Buddhist nun on staff would pick up the telephone, “Bonjour,” and then everyone would start chatting and eating again. The telephone rang frequently, and randomly, so we had plenty of opportunity to learn the rhythm of being in silence together for short, sweet moments of rest.

The simple spiritual practice of using a sound to gently return focus to God’s presence in our lives has more than spiritual advantages. Our minds benefit from a discipline of taking regular breaks from thinking. My shoulders and neck relax when I intentionally practice resting for a minute before resuming whatever tasks compete for my next action.

I recently installed a FREE meditation timer for the computer that also serves as a reminder to return to restful, centered silence. The ability to set the meditation timer with a random chime allows me to spiritually, mentally, and bodily practice resting during the many hours I spend online. The random chime announces it’s time to stop typing, breathe, relax my shoulders, readjust my posture, and thank God for the present moment.

To download the meditation timer, visit the FREE Download page of the Web site in the Resource section, or simply click on the image. Follow the installation instructions based on whether you have a PC or Mac.

What sounds do you find spiritually, mentally, and bodily renewing throughout your day?

In 2008, several participants in the annual Spiritual Directors International events in Washington, DC, convened the first meeting of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network. The network has continued to grow, and now includes people of color from throughout the African diaspora, including the United States, Nigeria, Cameroon, and South Africa, as well as Latin America, India, and Korea. The network is hosting its first international teleconference on Saturday, July 11, 2009, at 10 AM EDST. If you are a person of color in the ministry and practice of spiritual direction and would like to be on the call, contact Therese Taylor-Stinson at taylorstinson[at]earthlink[dot]net.

 

The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Smith Ritchey wrote in response to the June Membership Moments:

My dissertation is finished and approved! Graduation was held at San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California, USA, on May 23, 2009 and it helped make the completion of the Doctor of Ministry Degree officially real! Also there was a graduate receiving his PhD in Spirituality at SFTS, who is from Korea. We discovered that we were together and chatted at the Spiritual Directors International annual events in Washington, DC last year. Talk about "syncronicity"

Congratulations to Rebecca and to all the people graduating from ministry programs and receiving certificates of completion from spiritual director formation programs.

“Are you laughing enough?” my doctor asked me during my annual physical exam. After feeling my pulse and listening to my lungs, she continued, “People in helping roles need to laugh a lot, especially ministers.” She looked me straight in the eyes, “So I am giving you a prescription to laugh at least fifteen minutes every day. It’s what you need to stay healthy.” I smiled in agreement before opening my mouth to say, “Ahhh.”

When I told Sister Anna Rourke, CSJP my doctor’s prescription, Anna laughed aloud with delight. In her cheerful Irish brogue Anna said, “It is God’s greatest blessing to laugh. It’s a way of giving it all to God, a way of trusting deeply.” As spiritual directors, we need to nurture a light heartedness in ourselves and in each other, particularly during difficult times. Perhaps we also need to encourage the people we spiritually companion to laugh more often. 

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Anna. Anna who? Anna body know some more jokes?

The Global Day of Prayer is celebrated by millions of Christians every year on Pentecost Sunday. This year, GOD TV will broadcast the marathon events from locations around the world.

Hosted by GOD TV founders Rory & Wendy Alec in the network’s studio in the US capital, the three-part programme will air on GOD EUROPE on Sunday 31 May with live satellite crossings to Hong Kong at 8.00 BST and Abidjan in the Ivory Coast live at 16.00. The day’s coverage concludes at 22.00 with a final programme from the city of Bela Horizonte in Brazil, recorded earlier in the day.

Click here to read the entire story on the Christian Today Web site.

On May 24, 2009, we invite everyone to reflect upon the gifts and challenges inherent in new technologies and relationships as Roman Catholics celebrate the 43rd World Communications Day. As our world becomes increasingly connected, we realize the ministry of spiritual direction receives gifts and challenges through technology and new relationships fostered by technology. This is important in our own story, in the lives of those we companion, for communities, and everyone on the margins.

The 2009 theme for the 43rd World Communications Day provides valuable reflection and challenge: "New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship." Pope Benedict XVI writes:

World Communications Day, I would like to address to you some reflections on the theme chosen for this year—New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications. In this year’s message, I am conscious of those who constitute the so-called digital generation and I would like to share with them, in particular, some ideas concerning the extraordinary potential of the new technologies, if they are used to promote human understanding and solidarity. These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavour to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.

 

Growing numbers of Jews are choosing to express their spiritual values through culinary consciousness, according to an article by Mary MacVean and Duke Helfand in the Los Angeles Times.

The movement has become so popular in recent years that synagogues increasingly are forging relationships with farmers, farm education programs are starting up and Jewish "sustainability" conferences are attracting sold-out crowds. At a three-day gathering in Northern California in December, volunteers even learned how to kill, pluck, salt and rinse their own turkeys.

"Food is the most intimate relationship we have to the nonhuman world," said Zelig Golden, a San Francisco lawyer who co-chaired that gathering. It was the third food conference sponsored by Hazon, a New York-based environmental organization that in 2004 branched out into food issues. It has since become the primary force behind many programs in the sustainability movement—an effort to use natural resources responsibly to avoid depleting them.

To read the entire article, click here.

Want to build a better brain? Ramp up your spiritual practice, says Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Meditation and prayer can improve your physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being and may even slow the brain's aging process.

Read the rest of this article by David Ian Miller in the San Francisco Chronicle about how one's view of God affects the brain. Click here.

Sacred Is the Call: The Transformational Work of Spiritual Direction Programs for Personal and Professional Growth is now available in Korean. Presented by Mercy Center, a leading spiritual direction program in the U.S., this handbook addresses how spiritual direction leaders can present key topics and also provides wise guidance for individual seekers. Contributors include such luminaries as Mary Ann Scofield, RSM, Jim Neafsey, and Don Bisson. Topics include contemplative listening, discernment, sexuality, and others. Each contribution features reflection questions and suggestions for further reading.