Will you please pray for the "Cultivating Compassion" workshop presenters who will be in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 28 -- May 2, 2011? SDI celebrates more than 40 leaders who will offer teaching and guidance.

An Invitation
Can you imagine the luminous and dynamic power of Cultivating Compassion together? 

Travel to Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 28 – May 2, 2011. A third of attendees will come for the first time. People will arrive from around the world for the annual Spiritual Directors International education events.

Everyone is welcome.

Have you ever had a song arrive during contemplative practice, and it sticks around for a while? Do you remember the simple tune and lyric by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “In my life, I love you more”?

This tune came to me the week of the tragic violence in Tucson, Arizona, USA, and has emerged repeatedly since then. As I learn of personal tragedies in my friends’ lives and witness violent struggles in Tunisia and Egypt, the song beckons me gently to notice love in the midst of the specifics and beyond.

I am not alone in discovering the potency of this Beatles song. Read the lyrics, and then the stories of how others’ have encountered them:

There are places I’ll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more.

•    “My favourite Beatles song. It’s the song that opens my bar mitzvah video.”

•    “This is the song they played at my brother's funeral. I, like most people, have never really heard it before. It makes me cry each time I hear it because it reminds me of him obviously. 'Some forever not for better' ... I do remember the good and bad. Regardless of what it is about it is special to me. And in my life, I did love him more.”

•    “When my daughter was born, she was delivered by C-Section. I was in the delivery room and got to hold her. Once she was bundled up, the Dr. said I should take her out to the waiting area while they closed the incision. I took her out and held her. I sat there with tears rolling down my face and sang this song to her. I thought it should be the first. I still do.”

•    “I chose this song for my daughter and I to dance to at her wedding....It perfectly sums up my love for her, and my hopes for her future. She won't know what song I picked until the wedding, but I'm positive there won't be a dry eye in the place.”

Reflect
The transcendent quality to this Beatles song surpasses life, love, and death. Try substituting “God” for the word “you” in the lyrics and a divine love song emerges. This divine love song comforts me and draws me closer to God, to life, to love, and to the transcendence of death to a newer, broader, inclusive love in this life and beyond.

What love songs draw you closer to God?
Which popular love songs orient you to divine love?
How is music a way God is reaching out to you and to the people you companion?

Please share your thoughts on the blog.

Hopeful Imagination reflective centerpiece

In a workshop about the Hopeful Imagination, Mary Rose Bumpus, RSM, invited sixty-five spiritual directors to imagine a place where God meets us. Diverse answers included:

“in Benaroya Hall during a concert”
“when I receive a host during communion”
“in the shower”
“in the prison where I listen to people”

Together we explored ways our imaginations are a vehicle of hope in our journey toward and relationship with God or Ultimate Reality.

Mary Rose Bumpus, RSM, teaches at Seattle University’s School for Theology and Ministry. She is the author of the recent Presence journal article about the hopeful imagination as well as the Spiritual Directors International imprint book, Supervision of Spiritual Directors: Engaging in Holy Mystery. To read her Presence journal article online, follow this link.

My peer supervision group decided to learn together by participating as a group in the Hopeful Imagination workshop. Not only was it deeply satisfying to learn together as a peer group, but also inspirational to see many old friends and meet new colleagues. I highly recommend attending educational events for spiritual directors as a group, to support spiritual directors’ on-going education.

Many thanks to Carolyn Hickman and the Ignatian Spirituality Center for sponsoring the workshop for spiritual directors in the Northwest area of North America. Special kudos to the spiritual directors who drove from British Columbia to join the mostly Puget Sound community for a meaningful day of learning, sharing and cultivating hope through the imagination.

Mary Rose Bumpus, RSM, teaching

L-R Christine Betz Hall, Al Roehl, Joan Henjum, Carolyn Hickman, Jackie Leksen
Carolyn Hickman (from the Ignatian Spirituality Center) talks with Northwest spiritual directors. 

Dear Contemplative Companions,

I write to invite a united prayer of the heart with the creatures of the natural world who have boldly delivered their messages worldwide on 31 December 2010. Whatever reasons have been pondered–from poisoning by pesticides, to fright from fireworks–what to me seems an obvious omission is the significance of these occurrences on the last day of the past decade and on the eve of a new year and new decade. 

What are hundreds of turtle doves in Italy, thousands of crabs on the shores of England, penguins and petrels in New Zealand, jackdaws in Sweden, tons of tilapia in Vietnam, and sardines and catfish in Brazil trying to tell us? I’d like to include in this group the pollinating bumblebees in the United States that are declining at a rate of ninety percent affecting up to one-third of crop produce in the not-too-distant future, let alone depriving us of the beauty of flowers.

All this could be viewed as another cry from nature to wake up to the warning of limitations. But I feel it’s more.
Instead of a warning, it might be a hopeful awakening. It might be a collective invitation to the very necessary evolution of consciousness within the human race. In studying consciousness in nature I have discovered that creation provides the opportunities to experience wordless language, a unity of spirit, a synchronicity of thought not only through one-on-one encounters but among whole species regardless of place. It’s a transconscious reality. By recognizing that collective consciousness among humans also exists among other forms of life can contribute to a breaking down of the barriers that divide our minds and souls from what has been, for centuries, ingrained in many of our cultures as separate and distinct.

From this united point of view,

• Could the birds be telling us that we are losing the capacity for simple joy, to sing, to soar, to flow more freely in praise for the moment, grateful that we can still breathe the air? 
• Could the fish be telling us that life lived superficially on the surface of things only contributes to material enslavement, that the delights of diving deep is not only a Divine gift but within our capabilities to discover?
• Could the bees be saying that to taste the sweetness of life we need to curtail our unrestrained activities and busyness to allow balanced cooperation between the actions of wildlife and the actions of humanity? In other words, abiding as friends side-by-side with more sustainable consequences?

We, as contemplative practitioners aware of the power of the collective heart, and pure, purposeful mind, can, I believe, contribute a positive force by uniting with our non-human neighbors to turn the tide in this coming decade. May we heed–and spread–their particular messages of harmony, peace, spontaneity and joy.

In October, a young tree was planted in California, USA, and could be a living symbol of what we stand for, waiting patiently these winter months before sprouting new growth in the spring. Earthed by our prayers from so many traditions, may it be our praying tree for uniting with nature, going forward more closely together.

With gratitude for each of you and your support in loving creation to restoration,               
Lucinda M. Vardey
10 January 2011

Lucinda Vardey is a member of the Contemplative Alliance, and the author of several books including Being Generous: The Art of Right Living; Traveling with the Saints in Italy: Contemporary Pilgrimages on Ancient Paths, God In All Worlds: An Anthology of Contemporary Spiritual Writing, and Flowering of the Soul: Women's Prayers.

                           



                               

Spiritual Directors International receives many prayers for the people and issues that create a concern and cry of the heart.

Please add your prayer as a comment to this post. Each month SDI will publish a blog post to cultivate compassion and prayer within our global learning community. This ongoing post replaces the "Prayers" blog category.

Henri Nouwen writes,

“There are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life. Sometimes we seek out a quiet spot and want to be alone, sometimes we look for a friend and want to be together. Sometimes we like a book, sometimes we prefer music. Sometimes we want to sing out with hundreds, sometimes only whisper with a few. Sometimes we want to say it with words, sometimes in deep silence.  In all these moments, we gradually make our lives more of a prayer and we open our hands to be led by God even to places we would rather not go.”

In this time of world wide web connections, may our varied online prayers continue to cultivate compassion and connection.

Simply add your prayer or by clicking the link below. Your prayer or comment will post within 36 hours.

Peace ...

Martin Luther King, Jr., said:

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too heavy a burden to bear.

Metal artwork of Dr. King along Freedom Parkway in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA

On Monday, January 17, 2011 (or on any day), stop. Pause.

Ponder what core values animate your life.
Who can you forgive?
What burdens can you shed?
Where might you encounter the other, and embrace difference or discord?

Will you, could you, take a baby step? Choose love? Decide to stick to love? It is in love and with love that inner and outer freedom seeds, takes root, grows. Please, take time to stop, notice, and pay attention to what you cultivate in your life.

Join Spiritual Directors International in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 2, 1011 for a one day pilgrimage, "Compassion, Freedom, and Interdependence" following the SDI "Cultivating Compassion" education events. During the day, you will travel to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, and the Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Allow the life stories of internationally recognized individuals intersect with your own story to grow compassion, freedom, and interdependence. Click to learn more.

Immerse yourself in NEW videos from the “SDI Learns From…” FREE educational series! Please share these YouTube videos when you teach, via your workshops and online resource links, and with seekers.

New videos in "SDI Learns From ...'

These brief descriptions highlight a few themes from interviews that are best seen and heard! Seven to ten minutes--take a break and treat yourself.

Cynthia Baga describes how spiritual direction and life itself cultivate a primary relationship with God
Zsuzsanna Laczko speaks about forgiveness, healing, discerning a call to become a spiritual director
Rev. Msgr. Ramon Masculino tells how to cultivate gratefulness, and describes who can benefit from spiritual direction
Terrence J. Moran poetically shares the essence of spiritual direction and the role of prayer and contemplative practice in spiritual direction.
Korko Moses, SJ explains who can benefit from spiritual direction and the practice of guidance in India.
Dr. Hannah Nathans explores the role of a healthy ego and how spiritual direction aids our inner work.
Father Daniel O'Leary offers guidance about common themes in spiritual direction, cultivating peace and presence, and describes an anam cara.
Myles O'Reilly, SJ speaks about Saint Ignatius, desire, and spiritual companionship
Andrew Rudd shares about spiritual direction and writing, poetry, and contemplative practice
Sally Taylor teaches about contemplative practices in spiritual direction

Every week this month new additions will be added, from interviews filmed during Spiritual Directors International educational events!

Who do you want to see included in the SDI Learns From ... series? Please post a comment with your idea!

Be uplifted by SDI member Chris Copeland's visual experience and the mystical music about how peace depends on you and me. Interfaith spiritual relationships and contemplative practices are antidotes for religious discord and chaos. Thank you, Chris for celebrating in your slideshow lived potential from your experience of the SDI Interfaith Pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine, A Journey to the Heart Inner Paths to Compassion, Connection, and Peace.

• Jerusalem
• Bethlehem
• Beit Sahour
• Sea of Galilee
• Zefat
• Nazareth
• Korazim

Music by permission from Miriam Ahuvatel, who gave the pilgrims a concert. "Peace depends on you and me."

To learn more about how meeting regularly with a spiritual director contributes to peace and compassion in our world, visit www.sdiworld.org

Spiritual direction contributes to peace. Watch how SDI pilgrims from Africa, Europe, North and South America come together for peace in East Jerusalem. Bringing contemplative practice for peace to Israel and Palestine. Listen to Covita's music "Greetings of Peace." Thanking the Interfaith Amigos Rabbi Ted Falcon, Sheikh Jamal Rahman, Pastor Don Mackenzie, and St. George's College.

Jean Vanier and Sister Elisabeth le Jariel, RSCJ

In the New Year, when will you make time for a personal retreat, to nourish your soul and practice compassion for yourself, which ripples out into our families, communities, and world?

Near the end of last year, I made a silent retreat at a retreat center located in a tiny village called Trosly in northern France. Jean Vanier directed the retreat. Jean is the founder of the international movement of L'Arche communities, where people who have developmental disabilities and the friends who assist them create homes and share life together. I am deeply grateful for Sister Elisabeth le Jariel, RSCJ, a spiritual director and chaplain in Paris, France, who invited me to join her on the retreat titled, “Community: A Place for Forgiveness and Celebration.” Jean and Elisabeth are pictured above.

Describing the value of silent retreats is difficult, especially to family and friends who cannot fathom choosing to fast from television, radio, newspapers, e-mail, social networking, and conversation for a week to enter deeply contemplative space and touch into kairos time. Even my dear husband, Steve, thinks I am nuts. Yet he admits he notices a difference when I return renewed and awake to life in new ways. Thank God for soul friends like Elisabeth who understand the need to be in silence and know just the place to be.

The flow of the retreat included meals in silence, a morning and afternoon inspirational talk by Jean Vanier, and ample time for contemplative practices like walking meditation, praying, creating haikus and contemplative photographs, meeting with a spiritual director, and daily Mass with the local L’Arche community. People from all over the world, but mostly from France, participated in the retreat. While I cannot tell you much about their personal stories, a week in silence together built community amongst us. One of the most moving moments came near the end of the retreat when Jean invited us to wash each other’s feet. Tears of deep belonging flowed as we cared for each other with tenderness, in silence.

In his book, Becoming Human, Jean wrote, “My vision is that belonging should be at the heart of a fundamental discovery: that we all belong to a common humanity, the human race. We may be rooted in a specific family and culture but we come to this earth to open up to others, to serve them and receive the gifts they bring to us, as well as to all of humanity.”

You will do a world of good for yourself and for all of humanity by tending to your soul in 2011 by making a retreat. Moreover, perhaps it would be appropriate to start now, encouraging the people you companion to plan ahead for a retreat this year. Dream a little—where would you go?  Retreat possibilities are numerous—including everyday life retreats, silent retreats, online retreats, and group retreats. If you need ideas about where to make a retreat, check out the listings in the back of Presence journal, look in Connections e-newsletter, or review the global resources in Listen. Consider this: in May join the silent retreat following the Spiritual Directors International conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Or go online to the Resources section of the Spiritual Directors International website—a global searchable listing shows retreat centers with spiritual directors on a world map. You will find retreat centers all over the world waiting for you to come home to your soul.

In the comments section on the blog, please share your stories about what happens to you on retreat.

Happy New Year!