May 24, 2010: The New York Times Op-Ed Contributor, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, writes about the need for compassion, potential, mutual understanding, and the "power of personal contact to bridge differences."

"When I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best — and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today." 

"Granted, every religion has a sense of exclusivity as part of its core identity. Even so, I believe there is genuine potential for mutual understanding. While preserving faith toward one’s own tradition, one can respect, admire and appreciate other traditions."

"Harmony among the major faiths has become an essential ingredient of peaceful coexistence in our world. From this perspective, mutual understanding among these traditions is not merely the business of religious believers — it matters for the welfare of humanity as a whole."

Read the entire article, "Many Faiths, One Truth" by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

What do you believe? Have your beliefs changed over time or through circumstances and relationships? Please comment.

 

Eboo Patel, the founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement, took the opportunity to thank the Dalai Lama for listening and speaking encouraging words to him twelve years ago.

 

On May 18, 2010, Patel, writing "A Blessing from the Dalai Lama" for The Washinton Post, said,

"Twelve years ago, I went to see the Dalai Lama with the small seeds of a big dream: a movement of young people from different traditions building bridges of interfaith understanding through service. Last week, I had the chance to thank His Holiness personally for speaking encouraging words to a 22-year-old kid with a head full of radical spangles."

"I thought back to my first audience with His Holiness. I was experimenting with Buddhism back then, trying to figure out who I was and what I hoped to contribute to the world. I was eager to explain the Interfaith Youth Core to His Holiness during that first audience, but the Dalai Lama insisted on asking me questions about my own religious path first. I stammered that I didn't know. He prodded gently..."

Patel had the opportunity to say thank you during the Dalai Lama's visit to Bloomington, Indiana, USA, where His Holiness was giving a teaching on the Buddhist Heart Sutra, and took time to meet with a small group of Muslim and interfaith leaders to launch Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism, his new book. Patel adds:

• "Several times His Holiness spoke of the importance of "coming together", emphasizing that when people interact positively with each other they learn how similar they are, and when they are separated the gap is often filled by hostility."
• "Clearly, compassion lies at the heart of the teachings of both Islam and Buddhism, as it also lies at the heart of other great religious traditions ... The time has certainly come for followers of the world's great religions to work together to create a more compassionate and peaceful world."

Click "A Blessing from the Dalai Lama" to read Patel's reflection.

Who might you thank for offering compassionate listening to you?

The new May 2010 issue of Connections is online and waiting for you now! 14 pages. Clickable. Color. Green.

Connect inside: 

• Member reflections during SDI Twentieth Anniversary celebration in San Francisco, California, USA. Includes keynote snippets from Brian Swimme, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Leadership Institute
• Ireland 2009 reflections -- do you know about the cutaway bog?
• Resources, photographs, online links

Connections is the official Spiritual Directors International e-newsletter, published  in May, August, and November.

Join the international learning community of Spiritual Directors International. You can become a member today.

 

Princeton Theological Seminary values spiritual direction. Impressive:

"Student Health Benefits Plan has included a benefit to make individual (and group) spiritual direction even more affordable for students and spouses who are enrolled in this plan. It is probably the only health insurance plan in the world which includes spiritual direction a covered benefit and there is no deductible for this benefit."

"Students and spouses who have pursued individual spiritual direction during their time at Princeton Seminary routinely report that it has been an invaluable component of their faith formation. Many love having an opportunity to simply focus on where they are in their faith journey with a caring, trained "companion" who can help them hear the meaning in what they are saying and mine what they are experiencing."

Do you value spiritual direction? Is spiritual direction part of your wellness plan?

 

Click here to watch or read the full segment of the May 14, 2010: "Spiritual Direction."

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly features "May 14, 2010: Spiritual Direction" showcasing spiritual direction between two experienced spiritual directors from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, USA.

Host, Bob Abernethy says, "From time to time on this program we have referred to spiritual direction and spiritual directors." Spiritual Directors International thanks PBS for highlighting spiritual direction, and helping people learn about this ancient, contemplative practice that can be for of value to everyone.

The video and transcript highlight the actual session between Bill Dietrich, a Quaker, and Jean Sweeney, a Catholic. Abernethy writes:

"Spiritual directors say what they do is more like prayer than therapy, not so much counseling as helping people sense God’s presence. Every spiritual direction session is probably different, but this is what happened in the conversation we covered."

Click here to watch or read the full segment of the May 14, 2010: "Spiritual Direction." Don't miss all the comments!

To watch a PBS segment filmed earlier in 2010, click "February 26, 2010: Spiritual Directors" showcasing spiritual direction, prayer, and members of Spiritual Directors International.

Thank you to Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly host Bob Abernethy, Bill Dietrich, Jean Sweeney, and PBS for continuing to highlight spiritual direction.

Many months ago, a member of Spiritual Directors International telephoned the home office in Bellevue, Washington, USA with a request. She was searching for a painting of the face of Jesus, that was also a collage of faces. A query was sent to me. I remembered the image, framed in my Mother's bedroom, and from prayer cards during past years in campus ministry. I knew I had a print of it, and that a story from the artist accompanied it.

But I couldn't find it anywhere. Nor did a Google search locate it.

Last week, I was preparing to lead a retreat, and opened an old file box. In the first folder, the print, "In His Image" by William Zdinak (1925-1993) greeted me. Included was a testimonial by Zdinak, describing his one night painting process during the seventies, and a list of many of the better known people included in the image.

I share this in hopes that the member that asked for it may read this blog post, and that you too might be willing to follow your own creative inspirations.

Click to read the full story of the painting.
Blessings!

 

Diana Butler Bass, author of A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story, questions, "Happy National Day of Prayer...Or Is It National Day of Fighting Over Prayer?" Writing on May 6, 2010, for The Huffington Post, Bass queries:

"The sentiment of a National Day of Prayer for communal forgiveness and social unity is nice, even noble. It is also politically expedient. Honestly, what politician can vote against prayer and hope to get re-elected? But whose prayer? Which theology? What form of devotion? ... American prayer has more often divided us rather than uniting us. If today's news headlines are any indication, that is still the case. Maybe the Quakers had it right all along: Next year we should try a "National Day of Silence" instead." 

Spiritual direction cultivates compassion and contemplative stillness. Please join Spiritual Directors International for a pause of stillness, a moment of prayer, in whatever way your heart is moved. Feel the pulse of life within you and around you. Perhaps pray the prayer of the psalmist, with this adaptation:

Be still and know that I am God. ...
Be still and know that I am. ...
Be still and know. ...
Be still. ...
Be.

Click to read the entire article, "Happy National Day of Prayer...Or Is It National Day of Fighting Over Prayer?" by Diana Butler Bass.

What do you think? Please share your comments.

May Day! May Day! Around the world and across traditions, spiritual directors are responding to the distress call with heartfelt compassion, contemplative action, and peacemaking.

During the extraordinary educational events in San Francisco, keynoter Brian Swimme passionately put in plain words, “The task of spiritual direction is to deconstruct the maladaptive story that humans are living out of. The central task of spiritual direction is to create a culture that amplifies life’s hum … to learn that Earth is not a collection of resources but a community of life that the human is invited to join.”

 

 

Other keynoters, workshop presenters, and pilgrimage leaders, including Mary Ann Scofield, RSM; Jane Vennard; Alexander Shaia; Brother David Steindl Rast, OSB; Mary Ann Clifford, RSM; and Catherine Regan encouraged us to “amplify life’s hum” in a variety of ways: by listening to the plight of workers, of prisoners, of people needing hospice care, as well as listening to the birds and trees of Muir Woods.

Gratefulness and prayer were presented as an ancient-yet-new way of living, of being in the world, of “amplifying life’s hum.” According to Jane Vennard, “Our task here is to continually attend to the experience of Oneness, realizing again and again that nothing truly separates us from God, from each other, and from all creation. I am not only to love my neighbor, I am my neighbor. I am not only to care for this created world, I am the created world. All is one and All is holy.”

During the educational events, we honored elders in the spiritual direction community and welcomed newcomers.

We acknowledged in ritual and song that "the function of one generation is to make change possible for the next. The real function of each generation is to sow the seeds that will make a better world possible in the future" (Joan Chittester).

As a global learning community, we walk in solidarity with elders and newcomers, and with many in between who tend to the radical journey of our lifetime, a passage that Brian Swimme describes in this way: “The journey is from seeing Earth as Resources to Relatives.”

What a blessing to be related to YOU! As brothers and sisters, how might we “amplify life’s hum” together through the ministry and service of spiritual direction?

In an April 29, 2010 National Catholic Reporter article, "Connecting With God While At Work," Tom Gallagher questions, "... is it possible to foster an employee’s spiritual life during work hours? And is this a good thing? Or is it better for employees to compartmentalize their spiritual life to weekend services and to keep that part of their person out of the workplace?"

An important question to ask, to value, and to potentially implement, read how Ascension Health System is responding. Teasers from the full article include:

Ascension Health System is the largest Catholic health system in the United States, with 72 hospitals in 20 states, over $14 billion in operating revenue, 113,000 employees (called “associates”), almost $900 million in care for the poor and community benefit in 2009, and a $6 billion endowment.

“Everyone has a spirit and we want people to bring their whole person, including their spirit, to work,” said [Lynn] Tate. “We tell new employees at orientation to bring their whole spirit to work.” 

If employees cannot get to the spirituality center, [Jack] Logue takes programming to the hospital staff and departments on topics like de-stressing, meditation and contemplation. Lunch is often an opportune time for staff to find peacefulness, quietude and rest at the center.

“It’s our view that patients get better care if the employees have a better relationship with God,” said Logue. The religious makeup of the employees reflects the local community, heavily Protestant, specifically Baptist, with Catholics making up approximately 20 percent of the staff. While authentically Catholic, the spirituality center serves the entire hospital staff.

Click to read the entire article, "Connecting With God While At Work," by Tom Gallagher.

Please make a comment to share your experience and thoughts about integrating health care and spirituality into your organizational culture.

SDI educational events in San Francisco, California, April 8, 2010:
The “Artist and Musician Celebration” following “Thomas Merton: Pilgrim and Prophet of Peace – A Reader’s Theater” performance by David Hoover was juicy and full of life!

With more than twenty-five authors and musicians visiting and signing books, our international learning community flings gifts into the world. SDI Authors and musicians signing books and CDs included: 

Dr. Wilkie W. Au, PhD; Dr. Jeannette A. Bakke; Rev. Canon Peter W. Ball; Rev. William A. Barry, SJ, PhD; Betsey Desloge Beckman; Ms. Pegge Bernecker; Mary Ann Brussat; Richard Bruxvoort Colligan; Ms. Trish Bruxvoort Colligan; The Rev. Mary C.  Earle; Dr. Wil Hernandez; Mrs. Kristen J. Hobby, MASD; Rev. Dr. Anne M. Ierardi; Ms. Diane G. H.  Kilmer; Ms. Colette G. Lafia; Dr. Megan McKenna; Mary P. Millerd, MATS; Dr. Susan S.  Phillips, PhD; Ms. Sheila M. Pritchard; Susan Rakoczy, IHM; Patricia V. Roberts, MA, MRE; Hillevi Ruumet, PhD; Alexander J. Shaia, PhD; Christine V. Paintner, PhD; Rev. Jane E. Vennard, MDiv; Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit.

Delight in these images!

Perusing hundreds of resources in the SDI conference bookstore.

Authors ring the room to greet and meet everyone!

 

Dr. Wilkie Au personalizes a book; authors visit and connect.

Sharing stories with Spiritual Directors International staff (And receiving copies of Presence journal and Listen: A Seeker's Resource for Spiritual Direction.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Directors International editor, Pegge Bernecker, announces the new SDI imprint book, Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing The Arts to Spiritual Direction to 600 attendees, inviting everyone to celebrate the amazing SDI learning community as the evening continues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Liz Ellmann, SDI executive director, thanks David Hoover for his stunning perfomance of “Thomas Merton: Pilgrim and Prophet of Peace – A Reader’s Theater.”

Thank you to "Spirituality & Practice," our Thursday evening sponsor, the phenomenal conference bookstore, David Hoover, authors and musicians, and everyone who participated!