Mary Magdalene: Mother of the Contemplative Life

with Kayleen Asbo

Do you know who Teresa of Avila, Francis of Assisi, and Julian of Norwich named as their “mystical mother”?

It was the same woman who was honored as the “Master (Magistra) of the Apostles” in early Christanity - but who was later maligned in the West.

Mary Magdalene is our resilient mother, an example of fierce love and radical acceptance. It was she who stayed by Jesus’ side during the most harrowing time of his life. It was she who was chosen to be the first witness of his resurrection - named in all four Canonical Gospels.

How do we stay faithful and courageous in the face of fear and suffering? How can we endure loss without losing the capacity for hope? How can we bring healing to the world? Since the beginning of Christianity, Mary Magdalene has been a role model for all of these things.

In this masterclass, you will be treated to sumptuous visual imagery with music, text and legend, from cultural historian Kayleen Asbo, Ph.D. She will trace the history of contemplative practices of the mystics to the influence of Mary Magdalene and discuss The Gospel of Mary, an early Christian text recovered during the past century, in which Mary Magdalene's wisdom teachings reveal a powerful and inspiring message deeply needed in our time.

Learn more about this intriguing woman who was so influential for the first half of Christian history– and is now making a rousing comeback.

Dorothy Day: The Habit of Being Passionate

with Laura Michele Dienes

Dorothy Day, like many of the mystics, was possessed by a holy restlessness.

In her early life, she followed the path of the Bohemian artist: she roamed with a group of half-starved poets and anarchists. She grew up without religion, had several lovers, and spent countless nights in Greenwich Village bars discussing literature.

Yet even in those days, she was known for befriending the homeless–and cornering people at parties to talk about God! 

How did she go from Bohemian to being named the “most important, interesting, and  influential figure in the history of American Catholicism”?

Come learn about her transformation and unusual path to mysticism.

In this exclusive class, you'll have a chance to “meet” this woman whose encounter with the divine led her to a radical living of the Gospel.

For everyone seeking to find balance between a deeply rooted contemplative life and a radically loving active life - this class is for you.

Join us this Saturday to meet Dorothy: restless, flawed, and wholehearted.

Etty Hillesum: Everything is Beautiful

with Patrick Woodhouse

“All I want to say is this: The misery here is quite terrible; and yet, late at night when the day has slunk away into the depths behind me, I often walk with a spring in my step along the barbed wire…

And then time and again, it soars straight from my heart—I can’t help it, that’s just the way it is, like some elementary force—the feeling that life is glorious and magnificent, and that one day we shall be building a whole new world."‍

 On March 9th, 1941 in enemy occupied Holland, a young Dutch Jewish student named Etty Hillesum began a diary that was to become one of the most remarkable documents to emerge from the Nazi Holocaust. 

The diary tells the story of a young woman being transformed from chaos and insecurity to beauty and self-giving.

Etty had an unusual path for a mystic:

• She emerged from a tumultuous home, with fighting parents and schizophrenic and bipolar brothers 
• As a young adult, she restlessly moved nearly every year, picking up lovers as she went
• Her path to contemplation came neither through her Jewish roots nor through any other religion, but through Jungian psychology and the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

 By the time the Nazis threw her in the transit camps, en route to Auschwitz, a fellow prisoner described Etty as “radiant.”

How did this transformation happen?

In the midst of a terror-ridden Europe, how did Etty find hope?

How was she able to look into the face of a Nazi officer and find love? Or find the strength to comfort wailing, bereft mothers?

As shells fly on the edges of Europe again, her life feels more relevant than ever.

Join us to learn about this passionate, untraditional woman who became luminous in so much darkness.

You won’t want to miss this!

Julian of Norwich: Divine Motherhood

with Matthew Fox

Julian’s teachings begin and end in joy.

Julian of Norwich’s popularity has skyrocketed over the past century. Yet she spent most of her life literally entombed in her church-side cell. What has made her so compelling, that nearly every modern contemplative teacher speaks of her?

Julian’s teachings begin and end in joy. She knew that this was our origin, and this was our destiny. Yet she lived in the middle of incredible suffering and instability:

• The Black Plague killed 50% of Europe
• The Hundred Years War killed even more
• Heretics were regularly burned at the stake (and her cell was within smelling distance of her town’s stake!)
• The economy was in depression and there were huge labor strikes and riots

Yet unlike many who panicked in her time and either blamed the plague on their sins (and set up flagellation clubs to beat themselves for their sins) or scapegoated the Jews or "heretics," Julian stayed deeply grounded in her intimacy with God.

Rather than a fierce, judgmental God, Julian knew the Divine Mother was tender and loving. (Her theology of the motherhood of God more richly developed than any writer’s up to the late 20th century!)

Her spirituality revolved around the concept of one-ing: “Prayer oneth the soul to God,” she said. Rather than needing a fix for every ill (they are too many), Julian invites us to rest in the mystery of life.

Come learn from the woman whose teachings are taking the world by storm!

The Benguine Women: Divine Intimacy

with Daniel Renaud

The Beguine women were rare birds.

Unlikely, mystical, and powerful before being snuffed out far too soon.

During a time when the only paths open to women were being a wife and mother or being a nun, the Beguines were this strange third thing: single.

These independent women formed a lay movement before lay movements were really a “thing.” In the Middle Ages, it was popular to believe that sanctity was for the monks, not so much for ordinary lay people.

This made the Beguines some of the “first adopters” of an alternative lifestyle, setting the trend for lay movements to follow.

What made their lifestyle so unique?

• These were unmarried lay women who lived in self-sustaining communities. They grew their own food, spun their own clothes, and created their own industries–without the help of men.
• Beguines were proto social workers, dedicating their lives to caring for the poor.
• These communities were independent of Church authorities - and therefore highly suspect. They grew in power and influence, making several men in the hierarchy nervous. (“Where did these women get the nerve?”)
• Their spirituality was marked by divine intimacy. Several of them became mystics, writing (which women daren’t do in the Middle Ages!) erotic love poetry about their relationship with God.
• Most were highly educated, reading and studying and copying books (it was considered a waste of time to educate women in those days)

What gave them such audacity?

What was so powerful about their writings that Meister Eckhart took inspiration from them to write his own monumental works?

Were they feminists before their times?

Join us as we explore these questions through the mystical writings of the more famous Beguines like Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete (who was burned as a heretic!).

Through their spousal mysticism, love of their bodies, acceptance of suffering, and fierce defense of the poor, we can learn what it looks like to be in union with the Sacred.

Teresa of Avila: Holy Daring

with Tessa Bielecki

This doctor of the church had no problem giving God a piece of her mind.

Once caught in a rainstorm to her convent, Teresa fell in the mud. Looking up at the dark heavens she yelled, “If this is the way you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you have so few!”

It’s comforting to know that holiness can have a little sass!

The first woman ever declared a doctor of the church (one of only four!), Teresa of Avila was renowned not only for reforming the Carmelite order and for writing extensively about the mystical life–but also for her wit.

Learn about the human side of Teresa - from someone not unlike her in character and vocation.

Our presenter, Tessa Bielecki, helped start a new kind of Carmelite community - one comprised of both male and female hermits.

Over the decades as Mother Abbess, Tessa’s wisdom (and humor!) have impacted thousands of people. Through her life of simplicity, solitude, and stillness, Tessa has navigated the same interior depths as her namesake, Teresa.

Both women are poetic and practical, charming and disarming.

What would it be like to learn about Teresa from a woman who embodies her spirit with her very life?

Join us to learn:

• What gave Teresa the chutzpah to reform a male order as a woman
• Why fun is an important part of the spiritual life
• Little-known details about Teresa’s close male friendships
• How she united her poetic heart and pragmatic head
• Teresa’s remedy when you can’t pray

And so much more!

Perhaps Teresa can help us all integrate a little more sass into our spiritual lives.

Catherine Doherty: East Meets West

with Robert Wild

If it weren’t for this Russian woman, we might not be sitting here together today.

If you are at all interested in the contemplative life or Christian meditation, Catherine is partially to thank!

Not only did she help re-introduce the contemplative life to the West (yes, this was before Thomas Keating or John Main), but she also was a fierce antiracist, back to the land advocate, and renowned national speaker.

Even the young Thomas Merton was taken by her, describing himself as “nearly knocked down the stairs” by her powerful preaching.

Who was this dynamite of a woman?

Come steep yourself in the rich spirituality of the East, where Christ is revered in the beggar and the fool, where silence (or poustinia) is the place to meet God, and where theosis (or divine union) is the goal of all religion.

Join Fr. Robert Wild, a friend of Catherine’s who lived and worked alongside her for 17 years. A long time hermit, Fr. Robert will share with us the vibrant intertwining of Eastern and Western spiritualities that Catherine bestowed upon us.

Ruth Burrows: Going to God with Empty Hands

with Ronald Rolheiser

One might argue that what makes Ruth so extraordinary is how normal she is.

Hailed as one of the most profound Carmelite teachers of our time (by no one less than the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams), Ruth's experience is one that most of us can resonate with.

• She struggled with deep depression.
• God felt absent her whole life.
  (“My own lot seemed utterly bitter. Nothing, nothing, nothing, bleak, cheerless, lonely. And yet I found myself turning in the darkness to him.”)
• When she entered the convent, she felt like a sham.
  (“I lacked a natural religious sense and feared I was an agnostic if not an atheist at heart.")
• She was utterly aware of her failings.
  (“I wanted to be Number One always. My thoughts were often critical and unkind. Such things were incompatible with progress in the spiritual life, I thought. As far as I was aware, there was not a spark of love for God in my heart. I was weary and sick of spiritual things.”)

Yet what sets Ruth apart is her refusal to evade this painful inner reality.

On the contrary: following in the tradition of Therese of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross, Ruth realized that her powerlessness was a gift.

That precisely there, in our weakness and our poverty, lie our greatest riches.

For it is not in our spiritual insights, our daily meditations, or even our mystical encounters that divine union is found.

It is in being like Jesus: powerless, emptied out, allowing the Father to love him in the most mysterious of ways.

This is the heart of Christianity: that we allow ourselves to be loved.

And to do so, we have to let go of our egos, our expectations, our hopes for a “beautifully spiritual” life.

For contrary to much spiritual writing, the mystical life is not about ascending to glorious heights, but descending into our imperfections and poverty with an audacious, empty-handed trust.

That is how we make space for divine union.

Join the world-renowned author, speaker, and retreat leader Ronald Rolheiser as he guides us through Ruth’s mysticism, and what it looks like for us to make room for the divine.

Therese of Lisieux: How to Make Holiness Easy

with Kelly Deutsch

Therese is, by many accounts, the most famous saint of modern times. (Some say she is tied with Francis of Assisi.) Her autobiography became an instant bestseller - they could not print them fast enough. She was named one of the 4 women doctors of the church, as someone who best incarnates the heart of Christianity.

Yet Therese hardly left her provincial town in France, and died in an obscure convent at the age of 24. When she died, one of her sister nuns was at a loss how to write her obituary, so ordinary did her life seem.

How did she rocket to the top of the modern imagination?

With the simplicity and candor of a 5 year old, she revealed the tenderness of God.

Maya Angelou: The Power of One Voice

with Benjamin Mertz

When Maya Angelou was seven years old, she learned that words were powerful enough to take someone's life. Faced with the gravity of that truth, she remained mute for six years, deep in contemplation on the power of the human voice. The woman who emerged from that internal pilgrimage was unlike any other of the 20th century: singer, dancer, Civil Rights activist, lover, healer, and one of the most profoundly wise people of her generation. Few people in the American tradition of letters have ever understood the power of words more fully.

Join Benjamin Mertz - musician, storyteller, and Black History educator - on a journey through the life and sacred wisdom of Maya Angelou.

Evelyn Underhill: Mysticism for Normal People

with Kathy Henderson Staudt

Evelyn Underhill was both a lover of the mystics and a very practical person. That is what has always drawn me to her. Largely self-educated, a prolific and successful writer in the early twentieth century, she lived in many ways a quite conventional life, as a London matron, attorney’s wife, gardener, hostess and cat-lover.

But beneath this surface, in letters of direction and retreat work, she displayed a depth of experience with the mystery of love at the heart of our lives, and an uncannily wise ability to guide others on the path.

She often insisted that the experience of the great mystics of the church -- and indeed across religious traditions -- is available to everyone; it differs from our usual experience "in degree, but not in kind." That is because the love of God is available to, beckons to all, is indeed the most interesting and compelling reality running through our daily lives.

Her own journey, from an eclectic seeker's spirituality before the first World War, to an increasingly public role as retreat leader, spiritual guide and public voice for the spiritual life, reflects a sense of vocation I find inspiring: where there was no role in the church of her time for a lay woman guiding both laity and clergy, she invented and inhabited new roles for herself. In so doing she has re-energized generations who have found and read her work and discovered in it the invitation to embark on a spiritual path.

For her the spiritual life is exciting, creative, and engages everything about us - body, spirit, imagination, artistry. Rooted in the Christian tradition, especially in her awareness of the ways that the journey leads through suffering to new life, her teaching resonates across spiritual traditions and offers illumination and guidance for all of us, wherever we are on the journey.

Hildegard of Bingen: Greening Your Spirituality

with Christine Valters Paintner

You’ll never believe the things she had to endure.

Hildegard of Bingen, who would go on to become one of four female doctors of the church, had an incredibly rough beginning.

She was “tithed” to the church at age 7. Her family gave her away to become an anchoress - the kind of nun who lived in a walled cell her entire life.

At age 7. 

It began with her full funeral, complete with this child being laid in the dirt while death dirges were sung around her.

She would spend the next 30 years inside that cell alongside a strict, penitential anchoress.

But that was only the beginning.

Hildegard would go on to become:

• A celebrated mystic
• One of the world’s first feminists
• A female preacher (unheard of in her times!) who relentlessly called out clergy corruption
• Counselor of popes and emperors
• The mother of holistic medicine (from her convent!)
• One of the most important medieval composers (music students everywhere study her works!)

She was also the person who changed Christine Valters Paintner’s life, and set her on the trajectory she’s on today.

Join us for a never before seen class on the brilliant, insatiable Hildegard! 

Led by the bestselling author of The Artist’s Rule and Earth, Our Original Monastery, Christine Valters Paintner will reveal how this mystic catalyzed her own life - and how this edgy medieval woman can teach you to live out your own audacious desires!