May 6, 2016

What's Happening This Week at SpiritualityandPractice.com
Editor's Pick   

Directed by Rodrigo García 
 
In this immersive spiritual drama, Ewan McGregor puts in sensitive and emotionally literate performances as both the tender and caring Yeshua -- who has come to the desert for 40 days of solitude, silence, prayer, and fasting -- and the taunting Demon. Our review/discussion guide identifies how God speaks to him through the world, his experiences, a family, and the Demon.  Opens May 13; tickets for special premieres on May 12 available now.
 
   
Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan -- known for his peacemaking, protests, and poetry -- died on April 30 and will be greatly missed. These articles, interviews, books, quotes, and video clips recall his uncompromising integrity and willingness to question. You can read more about him on this celebration of his May 9 birthday.  
Practices   


We often associate mothering with nurturing -- and this practice is not limited by gender or any other quality. From photography to rituals to personal explorations, here are ways to expand your definition of who gives you mothering and who receives your mothering.

More Practices: Communities of Hope  
E-Courses   


Nurture your mother, your self, or anyone you love with the gift of an e-course! For Mother's Day, we are offering 20% off all of our on-demand e-courses.

Use this case-sensitive coupon code at checkout: Mother
In your Shopping Cart, be sure to click "apply" and look for the price to drop before you click "checkout."  

Need recommendations for e-courses especially well suited to Mother's Day? Check out these six:

Creating Sanctuary for Ourselves and Others

Cultivating Contentment

Mastering the Art of Resilience

Practicing Spirituality through Creativity

Practicing Spirituality in Nature

Zen and Everyday Life

Remember, on-demand e-courses have a "forever" shelf life. You can avail yourself of this sale and take the e-course when the time is right.  
Films
Directed by John Carney

This charming romantic drama takes a familiar story about youth, playing in a band, and puppy love and turns it into a satisfying story about creativity as a dynamic and dramatic means of self-expression.

More Films: Barbershop: The Next Cut, Dheepan, The Professor, Mothers and Daughters
 
DVDs
Directed by Gerard Barrett

This drama takes a hard look at a good-hearted young man who cares for his alcoholic mother in Ireland as best he can. We chose passages from The Caregiver's Tao Te Ching to probe the film's soulful insights.
More DVDs: Joy, The Messenger, Bikes vs. Cars, A Royal Night Out  
Books   

Inclusivity
By Diarmuid O'Murchu
O'Murchu believes that "Christianity has not taken seriously its foundational blueprint for wholeness, its archetypal sense of oneness that must never exclude or oppress anybody." This book calls us to return to that blueprint and move forward with acceptance of greater religious pluralism. 

Arts   

By Amy Berg

A poignant passport to the world of the woman who, in the words of Clive Davis, "didn't simply 'sing' a song - she ravaged it, tore it to shreds, exploded it."    

 
Blogs   

Spiritual Literacy Blog
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

"Here's the deal," writes Parker Palmer. "The human soul doesn't want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to witnessed -- to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is."
 
Elder Spirituality Project   

A Song Just for Me
By Mary Kiki Wilcox

A wonderful collection of stories by seniors about music's spiritual impact. "Who is to say . . .  what is being heard," asks the author, "or what is being remembered at the sound of any music? How could anyone know what might be stirring in the heart of another's moonlight?"
 
From Our Wisdom Archive   


Communes, student cooperatives, land co-ops, cohousing groups, monasteries, ashrams, and farming collectives: Although quite diverse in philosophy and lifestyle, these groups all place a high priority on fostering a feeling of belonging and mutual support, increasingly hard to find in mainstream Western society.
 
A Thought to Carry with You  

Matsuo Basho, the 17th-century master of haiku, gives us this gigantic yet gentle contrast:

"Here on the mountain pass,
     somehow they draw one's heart so --
          violets in the grass."

Pause to take in this scene with the full powers of your imagination. Can you feel the cragginess of the mountain stones, the vast scale of the mountain itself, and then these most delicate violets at your feet in the grass, rejoicing in whispers of the fresh, wild air? This is not a mountain top; it is a pass. You have slipped between barriers to come here. You have found both solidity and these momentary, here-for-you blossoms. Your heart bows to meet them.

Basho is not the only one to write in this vein. You may know of "A Sort of Song" by William Carlos Williams, which ends: "Saxifrage is my flower that splits the rocks." Saxifrage, that low-growing flower often grown in alpine gardens, literally means "stone-breaker" (Latin saxum -- "rock" or "stone" -- + frangere ("to break"). Williams uses it as an image of the way our creativity breaks through to unfathomable new territory.

Is there something in you of utmost beauty and delicacy that knows how to find its way between barriers and even through rocks? Whatever your subtle "stone-breakers" are -- those insights which are "quiet to wait," as Williams writes -- trust them. The forever-ness of mountains holds you in its embrace and gives you the ephemeral violets that greet you this very moment. And without the violets and the surrounding grass, what would the mountains be? 
 
Blessings, 
Your Spirituality & Practice Team 
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat 
Patricia Campbell Carlson 
Darren Polito