September 28, 2017
What's Happening This Week at SpiritualityandPractice.com
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Editors' Pick
By Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows
Meister Eckhart (1260-1329) was a Dominican priest and theologian whose visionary spirituality has been heralded by the spiritually independents, modern-day theosophists, and American Buddhists. In these poems, you will find poignant insights into the central place of love, the paradoxes at the heart of the spiritual journey, and the importance of resting in the warm embrace of grace.
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Practices
More Practices: The Feast Day of St. Therese of Lisieux, Guardian Angels Day, Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, Birthday of Philip Berrigan
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E-Courses
A new e-course by Carl McColman
October 2 - 27, 2017
Celtic spirituality is perhaps best known as a path of "ecology and holiness." If you visit one of the Celtic lands today -- especially once you get outside of the cities -- you will quickly realize that it is a place where the love between the people and the land has endured for many generations. Learn more about this and many other aspects of a multi-faceted tradition in our new e-course which starts Monday. Read more and sign up:
www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/CelticSpirituality
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A new e-course by Pat Hoertdoerfer and Bob Atchley
October 2 - 27, 2017
Spiritual elder activism, the basis of this e-course starting on Monday, is about how to help from a spiritually awakened place. To do this, we need to see clearly, free from judgment or bias. Far from being a complacent approach to problems, we start to discover abundant clues about the nature of the suffering before us, what fears are inhibiting us, and finally what action or inaction might actually help the situation. Read more and sign up:
www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/SpiritualElderActivism
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Films
Directed by Peter Bratt
"Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to save the world," according to labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta. Her important role in co-founding the National Farmworkers Association, which became the United Farm Workers, has often been ignored by history. This documentary helps change that.
More Films: Te Ata, Abundant Acreage Available, AlphaGo
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DVDs
Directed by Werner Herzog
In this true-to-life drama, explorer, scholar, archaeologist, and cross-cultural pioneer Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) escapes the constraints of her gender and travels widely, exploring and mapping deserts of the Middle East. Her exotic life and nonstop work over 28 years earns her the name "Queen of the Desert."
More DVDs: David Lynch: The Art Life, The Death of Louis XIV
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Books
This lively paperback contains interviews with Centering Prayer movement co-founder Keating, giving him a chance to express himself on a wide range of subjects including seeing contemplation as designed "to heal the wounds of a lifetime" and the value of interior silence.
More Books: Imaginative Prayer, A Mind at Home with Itself
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Children's Books
By Meike Roth-Beck
Lavishly illustrated, this picture book with a text appropriate for ages 7 and up gives us a feel for what life was like in Martin Luther's time. It tells the dramatic story of his publishing of the 95 theses which sparked the Protestant Reformation.
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Arts
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
BBC Culture has launched a new series of video profiles about "The Photos That Changed History." The first features Ian Berry, the only photographer present at the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa on March 21, 1960. Thanks to his poignant photographs, the massacre prompted international condemnation.
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Blogs
By Patricia Adams Farmer
Compassion lies at the heart of the spiritual life, a uniting theme running through every major world religion. The unrelenting parade of catastrophes we are facing today offer us countless possibilities for rebirthing fresh forms of compassion into the world.
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Elder Spirituality Project
Directed by Ritesh Batra
Louis (Robert Redford) and Addie (Jane Fonda) are elderly neighbors who have lived on the same block for many years but do not know each other very well. They are both widowed and are lonely most of the time. Their evolving relationship, beautifully captured by the film, opens our hearts and minds to the tender and touching quest of two elders for meaning and purpose.
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From Our Wisdom Archive
In honor of the great Persian mystic poet Jelaluddin Rumi, whose birthday is September 30, we offer this collection of articles, book excerpts, e-courses, interviews, and video clips collected for the 2007 International Year of Rumi. You can also enjoy this Naming the Days feature about his life and work. Hungry for more? Follow this search link to more than 300 additional Rumi resources.
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A Thought to Carry with You
Perhaps you know Robert Creeley's "Love Comes Quietly," a gently moving little poem about love and interdependence:
Love comes quietly,
finally, drops
about me, on me,
in the old ways.
What did I know
thinking myself
able to go
alone all the way.
If you don't already know it by heart, this poem is worth memorizing and carrying with you like a mantra. Notice how the last part is not a question but an acknowledgment. With no exceptions, we are clueless when we think we can go strictly alone. Even those unusual people who make their way in solitude with very little human help are supported with every breath and with every sip of water by the loving bounty of Nature.
This week, write or speak words of gratitude to someone who let their love quietly drop upon you and remind you that you are not alone. Your intended recipient can be human or another creature, plant, tree or guardian angel, living or passed -- whoever you feel has given you love that made you feel supportively accompanied on your life's journey.
Blessings,
Your Spirituality & Practice Team
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Patricia Campbell Carlson
Darren Polito
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