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Gift of Years
How do you view the aging process? Is it tinged with anxiety and regret? Or do you see it as an adventure, a time to find meaning, and a ripening? Or, is it a little of both?
Gift of Years, an eCourse based on Joan Chittister’s best-selling book by the same name, offers you the chance to look at this time of maturation with fresh eyes, with joy for what has been and optimism for what is to come. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Beatitudes of Peace with John Dear
In “The Beatitudes of Peace,” a new four-week Monasteries of the Heart eCourse, author and peace activist John Dear will offer fresh insights into the Beatitudes, including a new rendering of the Beatitudes based on an Aramaic translation. “Jesus was inviting us to ‘Arise! Get up, get moving and walk forth! you poor, you poor in spirit …Arise! Get up, get moving and walk forth, you who mourn….,’” Dear says. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Great Monastic Women
How much time do you devote to your inner life?
The truth is that enriching your inner life can change your outlook on just about everything. And, fortunately, there are many spiritual giants whose own journeys to wholeness can guide you as you search for fullness and meaning. Where did figures like Dorothy Day or Saints Hildegard of Bingen, Gertrude or Scholastica, for example, find the inspiration for their lives and work? How did they connect with the divine? What difference can their witness make in your life? >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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How Shall We Live
“How shall I live?” Isn’t that the question each of us presses to our heart as we move through our days? It’s the same question that Benedict of Nursia addressed 1,500 years ago. Sister Joan Chittister has selected six pillars that she believes are integral to Saint Benedict’s Rule and essential to meeting the challenges of our times. They are: work, holy leisure, stewardship, community, humility and peace. This eCourse will present you with insights on integrating these values more deeply in your life. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Monastery Scribes
Is keeping a spiritual journal—a kind of heart-to-heart conversation with other seekers, poets, mystics, and saints—a practice you’d like to explore? If so, then consider becoming a Monastery Scribe. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Give Me a Word
In the early centuries, seekers desiring a deeper spiritual life went and sought direction from seasoned monks saying, “Amma (mother) or Abba (father), give me a word." The same word might be offered over and over, year after year, until finally its meaning revealed itself to the seeker. This Lent, go into the "desert spaces" of your own life with Give Me A Word, drawing on Sister Joan Chittister’s 2015 book In God’s Holy Light. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Friendship of Women
The best defense against the rampant sexism in our culture is the support, friendship, and sisterhood that women can offer each other. “Friendship is the sacrament of possibility,” writes Joan Chittister. What might become possible for this world—sickened for generations by violence and cruelty toward women— if we develop true, holy friendships? >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES ICONS
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Respond with Nonviolence
Overwhelmed by the magnitude of threats to peace in our world today?
Tempted to curl up in a ball and hide until it’s all straightened out?
Find yourself spewing indiscriminate anger instead of using focused anger at injustice?
Or wondering if a refresher course in nonviolence would be helpful right about now?
>>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES AUDIO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Sacred Moments Lectio with Ordinary Time
Is it difficult for you to feel peace or wonder in the midst of your daily life? Is it hard to find beauty and meaning when the dishes are piled in the sink, or when your neighbors can be heard through the walls? We often think of the sacred as something far-off and mystical, to be found in a cathedral or on a mountaintop, rather than something that even mundane moments may be infused with. Yet Joan Chittister writes that, "Benedictine spirituality...is a life of concentration on life's ordinary dimensions, an attempt to do ordinary things extraordinarily well. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Thomas Merton and Peacemaking
Is the vocation of peacemaker reserved for a chosen few or is it your call too? The late Trappist monk Thomas Merton believed peacemaking and nonviolence were Gospel imperatives. In this four-week eCourse, best-selling author and peace activist John Dear explores how the writings and mentoring of Merton profoundly influenced the peace landscape of the institutional church and continues to shape it still. More importantly it forces all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus to grapple with the demanding invitation of the Sermon on the Mount. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Lectio Divina A Summer Experience
Lectio Divina, reflective sacred reading, has deep roots in Benedictine spirituality. Traditionally, the scriptures were the only text for lectio, but in this course you are invited to use other of God’s texts—nature, photography, and the daily news—as ways to engage in a lifelong conversation with God. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES SOME VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Lectio Divina: Finding Your Sacred Center
Lectio Divina, reflective sacred reading, has deep roots in Benedictine spirituality. Traditionally, the scriptures were the only text for lectio, but in this course you are invited to use other of God’s texts—nature, photography, and the daily news—as ways to engage in a lifelong conversation with God. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Love, Forgiveness and Reconciliation with Joan Chittister
The themes of forgiveness and reconciliation are central to all religions. But how do you integrate these ideals into your personal life? How do you forgive a person who betrayed you? What if you can’t get over the hurt and just move on…even if everyone around you is telling you to do so? >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Monastic Wisdom for the Workplace with Judith Valente
The workplace is where many of us spend the bulk of our waking hours. How can we apply Benedictine values and practices to the competitive, often cut-throat marketplace? Judith Valente, a correspondent for PBS-TV and radio, former Wall Street Journal reporter, poet and Oblate, will reflect on how The Rule of St. Benedict offers timeless wisdom for working people.
>>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES AUDIO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Nonviolence and the Rule of Benedict with Anne McCarthy
The essential challenge of both the gospel of Jesus and monasticism is to move from fear and violence to freedom and love. How do we structure our lives and our communities to reflect nonviolent love? This course explore answers to those questions. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Empower Yourself, Empower Others with Joan Chittister
If an organization lasts 1,500 years, as Benedictine monasticism has, you must surmise that the founder knew something about leadership. In this course, Empower Yourself; Empower Others: Six stories of Benedict to unleash the leader in you, Joan Chittister outlines the basic principles of leadership, and, using stories from the life of Benedict, explores if or how he applied these principles and how you can do the same. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Heart of the Rule with Joan Chittister
Does the 1500-year-old Rule of Benedict of Nursia have anything to say to the modern world? You bet it does. In this course, Joan Chittister offers 37 brief videos on aspects of monastic spirituality that can guide you into a new way of seeing and living. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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All You Holy Women with Edwina Gateley
In this eCourse, best-selling author and poet Edwina Gateley will introduce you to five great women from the monastic tradition: Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Brigid of Kildare and Pema Chödrön. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES VIDEO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Praying the Psalms with Joan Chittister
The 150 songs of praise in the Book of Psalms are a sweeping overview of the spiritual life and the universal story of the soul’s pilgrimage through life. In monastic communities, the psalms are the basic prayer of the day. In this course, “Praying the Psalms,” Joan Chittister uses the prayers that formed her monastic spirituality to show you how to pray them in reflective, life-altering way. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES AUDIO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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Creating a Monastery of the Heart with Joan Chittister
This eCourse is your opportunity to join Joan Chittister in creating a Monastery of the Heart—wherever you are—as she explores the key elements to the life: prayer, work, silence, community, good zeal, humility…. >>>FULL DESCRIPTION
INCLUDES AUDIO
SIX MONTH ACCESS
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How do you form a monastic heart? Regular prayer, honest self-reflection in lectio, good work, and faithful sharing of our lived experience in community—essential elements of the monastic way of life—are presented on this Monasteries of the Heart website. Instruction on the Benedictine way of life, or the passing down of the monastic charism from those who have chosen this lifestyle, is also imperative.
