Spiritual Practices
Morning, Noon, and Night:
Open Page Writing on the Rhythms
of Faithful Living
Thursdays, September 29, October 27, and December 1
In a world of technology and mechanics, what does it mean to attune our lives to nature’s ancient rhythms of season and light? How can our listening to the earth, sun, and moon open space for prayer, for balance, and for rest and creativity? These sessions (which begin at sunset or moonrise) explore life’s deeper rhythms while engaging writing as a spiritual practice, a correspondence with the “still, small voice within.” Each session visits a different topic and prompts participants’ writing with poetry, stories and teachings from world religions, physical objects and visual images. No writing experience needed.
Balancing Day and Night, Shadow and Light
Thursday, September 29, at sunset, 6:57–9pm
"What does light talk about?" Thomas Aquinas once asked a plant, to which he said the plant replied, "I am not sure, but it makes me grow." A few days after the Autumnal Equinox, we pause at sunset to consider the dynamic balance nature finds between darkness and light.
The Circumference of Prayer
Thursday, October 27, at moonrise, 8:55-11:30am
“There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground,” the poet Rumi reminded us long ago. This morning session explores the many prayerful possibilities in our own daily lives, including the prayer of deep listening.
Sacred Time, Sacred Space
Thursday, December 1, at moon rise, 12:04-2:30pm
A day of rest can be hard to come by. But an empty day, like an empty page, can open sacred and creative possibilities. “All creation springs from emptiness,” says writer Wayne Muller. Before the rapid holiday pace picks up, this midday writing session reflects on the gift of Sabbath rest and other sacred time and space.
Presenter: Karen Hering, consulting literary minister at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, leads programs and retreats that engage writing as a spiritual practice and a tool for social action. A published writer and ordained minister, she has written the reflections in the current and recent Wisdom Ways program catalogs.
I want to give you the sublime rhythms / Of this earth and the sky’s limbs
As they joyously spin and surrender . . . Against God’s luminous breath.
~ Hafiz
trans. Daniel Ladinsky
WHEN: Thursdays, September 29, 6:57–9pm; Thursday, October 27, 8:55am–11:30am; Thursday, December 1, 12:04pm–2:30pm
COST: $75 for the series, $30 per session
