In the January 18 issue of Commonweal, Rita Ferrone writes about "A Common Word between Us and You"—an open letter originally signed by a group of 138 Muslim scholars, religious leaders, and intellectuals and written to all Christian churches, denominations, and individuals. She writes:

The “common word,” as the authors have discerned it, is found in the divine command to love God and to love one’s neighbor, imperatives found in the Qur’an, the Book of Deuteronomy, and the New Testament. Because of the centrality of these commandments to Christians and Muslims alike, the statement carries great weight and urgency. As the authors point out, obedience to God’s commands is a matter on which rest not only our earthly prospects for peace, but also the eternal fate of human souls. The statement concludes with an affirmation from the Qur’an that God made the world in such a way that there is a variety of religious communities, and that those communities should “vie with one another in good works.”

Ferrone notes that the letter could be a tool to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians in settings where one or the other group is in the minority. However, the response to the letter in the West has been mixed and hasn't yet generated enough attention. Click here to read her entire article.

The Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction fourth annual poetry contest will be judged by a three-person panel. The leader is Presence poetry editor Jinks Hoffmann.

Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann was born in 1943 and was raised in South Africa. She and her husband Alan immigrated to Canada in 1966, where they have lived since. She is a psychotherapist and a spiritual director in private practice in Toronto. From 2001-2003 Jinks trained to become a spiritual guide in a program called Lev Shomea, which means “listening heart” in Hebrew. 

If you would like to submit a poem, click here for the contest guidelines. 

Stay tuned for info about the other judges. 

G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes in a recent issue of USA Today about the quest of more and more people in the United States to discover an inner life. Many are seeking to develop spiritual practices. He writes:

Choosing a spiritual practice shouldn't be an arbitrary process, says Christopher Beeley, an Episcopal priest and assistant professor of early Christian theology at Yale Divinity School....

Community connections to support the inner life can take various forms. A person might share experiences in a faith community, in a support group, in psychotherapy or in spiritual direction, which involves working with a trained guide in matters of the spirit, Beeley says. He says the process of reflecting with partners should help clarify the ultimate values that guide an individual's life.

Read the entire article here.

Buddhist monk Ashin Nyanissara is standing up to the military crackdown in Myanmar by telling stories. 

Shielding himself with allegory, he crisscrosses the country giving lectures that draw on history and legend to remind people that rotten regimes have fallen before. As the generals try to crush the last remnants of resistance, he is cautiously keeping the fire alive.

The story appears in the January 14 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Click here to read why spitting on a hermit is not a good idea.

Spiritual Directors International expresses condolences to the family and global friends of Irish poet and anam cara [soulfriend] John O’Donohue. To learn more about John and write a tribute to John O’Donohue, letting the community know how John’s teachings and writings inspired your spiritual direction, please submit your reflections here, sdiworld.org/tributes-in-memoriam/johnodonohue.html.

A blog titled "The Fungus" recenly posted some of the thinking of Wayne Teasdale on friendship.

Looking at my own life as a contemplative in the world, living at the crossroads of fundamental societal change, I want to explore here the vital nature and value of friendship as it functions in my experience. As a hermit monk in the Catholic tradition, I am naturally also a celibate. Neither marriage nor the joys of sexuality are options for me, given my commitment to the monastic ideal. This path is not a popular one, and I don’t expect the worldly wise to understand it, but it affords its own joys and possibilities. For one thing, it has made it possible for me to appreciate how precious a gift friendship actually is.

Click here to read the entire post.