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Imagine having a great monastic figure accompany you on your spiritual journey. Imagine, too, that this spiritual giant was a woman. In this eRetreat, best-selling author and poet Edwina Gateley introduces you to five great women from the monastic tradition: Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Brigid of Kildare and Pema Chödrön. Five videos of Gateley reading a poetic reflection on the women monastics are included as well as discussion questions, additional readings from the five mystics, and suggestions for a creative activity and ritual.

After more than 50 years of living the monastic life, Joan Chittister asked herself some questions: What—if anything of monastic life—is worth passing on to others in our time? What does monasticism offer seekers who are already overwhelmed by all the spiritual and secular options available to them? And how can those outside traditional monasteries embrace this life? Her answer was to begin Monasteries of the Heart.

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.

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. Four Benedictine Sisters—Anne McCarthy, Mary Ellen Plumb, Susan Doubet, and Anne Muczynski—will serve as your guides in discovering how the Scriptures, nature, daily events, and the art of photography can stretch your soul.