Friends of Bon Secours Spiritual Center - Day of Prayer Focus: Psalm 119:105 (KJV)
“Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Presenter: Sister Kathleen Haughey, SND
Arrival: 9:30am
Departure: 3:00pm
Cost: $25 (Includes Lunch)
Registration & Payment Due By: Monday, February 4, 2008
Catechist certification available for those seeking clock hours: 4A
Mark your calendar to join us the first Wednesday of each month for an inspirational day of prayer and reflection. We begin at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and pastries, a morning presentation at 10:00 a.m.; Mass in the chapel; a delicious lunch and an afternoon presentation at 1:30 p.m. There is also an hour of free time after lunch to walk the beautiful grounds, pray the labyrinth, or just to relax outdoors at the pond. Our day concludes at 3:00 p.m.
Presenters: Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND; Jesse Palidofsky, MDiv, BCC; Micheline C. Toussaint, LCSW
Arrival: 10:00am
Departure: 4:00pm
Cost: $150 (Includes Lunch)
Registration & Payment Due By: Monday, January 21, 2008
CEUs are available for this program. Please contact the Center at 410-442-1320 for details.
Catechist certification available for those seeking clock hours: 5A
For professional healthcare givers, chaplains, spiritual directors, and others who accompany the dying.
“Listen! Are you breathing just a little and calling it life?” (Mary Oliver)
Some of us have chosen as our life’s work attending the dying; others have had this foist upon us through life’s circumstances. Which ever the case, it is easy to find ourselves overwhelmed by daily demands that accompany this work, whether they be the angst of “getting it all right” for a loved one, or the incessant pressures of requirements like a specified number of visits with the accompanying documentation. In the midst of these demands, we may find ourselves, quite literally, being torn apart, separated from ourselves. How might we keep this from happening? How might we affirm and maintain our own Center, living in the deep confidence that we are enough?
In this workshop we will examine the fears, assumptions, and expectations that dull our hearts and take us away from ourselves as we seek to be present to others. We will explore practices that can support our simple open presence even in, perhaps especially in, the face of our own pain and sense of inadequacy as we companion the dying, and some skillful means that might assist our companioning.
Bring a journal and wear or bring shoes for walking.
About the Presenters:
Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND, worked at Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation for many years, and retains the title of Shalem’s Senior Fellow for Spiritual Guidance. She has had considerable experience in accompanying the dying as friend, daughter, sibling, spiritual director and hospice volunteer. She currently works at Joseph’s House, a hospice for formerly homeless people with AIDS and offers retreats, workshops, and spiritual direction for hospice care givers. Rose Mary also teaches Zen meditation in various settings and assists people in integrating contemplative presence and just action in their lives.
Jesse Palidofsky, MDiv, BCC, is a Quaker and a Board Certified Chaplain (Association of Professional Chaplains). He is chaplain for Holy Cross Home Hospice. In his twenty years of chaplaincy Jesse has provided spiritual care for pediatric oncology patients and their families, as well as in general hospital intensive care units, oncology units and emergency rooms. Jesse is a performing songwriter and uses music every day in his work with hospice patients and their families.
Micheline C. Toussaint, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker who is passionate about her work with end of life care. A social worker for 18 years, and a certified psycho-dramatist, Micheline has worked in a variety of settings, with individuals, groups and families. She is a graduate of the Alaya Institute's End of Life Care Practitioner Program, and is currently a social worker with Capital Hospice in Falls Church, VA.
Suggested Reading: Contact the Friends' Bookstore to inquire about obtaining these items.
Birx, Ellen, Ph.D., R.N. Healing Zen: Awakening to a Life of Wholeness and Compassion while Caring for Yourself and Others. Viking Compass, 2002
Ram Dass and Paul Gorman. How Can I Help? Alfred A. Knopf, 2004
Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Dying: A Message of Hope, Comfort, and Spiritual Transformation. HarperCollins, 2000
Rodney Smith. Lessons from the Dying. Wisdom Publications, 1998
Registration & Payment Due By: Monday, January 25, 2008
Catechist certification available for those seeking clock hours: 6A
The early Celts called it “The Great Round” - the earth’s circling the sun year after year. We speak of the four seasons, each bringing changes, challenges, beauty and constancy. In this quarterly series, we will explore the gifts and opportunities of each season, how each affects the inner spirit and how each leads us to be grounded in gratitude. We will use story, music, art exercises and quiet time to discover the gifts and call to growth present in each season.
Winter beckons us to come inside and go deep as darkness and cold swirls around us. What does the cocoon of this season hold for you? (February 9, 2008)
Spring hopes eternal and invites us to bloom, create and leave the darkness for new light. What is sprouting in you amid all this newness? (April 26, 2008 )
Summer is the time for shedding burdens and heavy clothes and a time of warmth, relaxation and play. What calls to play and relaxation do you hear? (July 16, 2008)
About the Presenter:
Karen Amelia Brown is a painter, writer, quilter and seeker. Her art is in private collections and many homes. She’s been leading groups in The Artist’s Way for a decade and in retreats using art as a way to grow. She loves exploring the earth and seeing people discover and respond to growth. See Karen's article "Welcoming the Darkness" on page 6 of 2007 Fall Winter Bridges.
For details or information, Please Call: 410- 442-1320
Moving Through to Love Ephesians 3 tells us, how we will, “…with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, (we) are filled with the utter fullness of God.” This “knowing” is a knowing that takes place in love, not with the head, the way the Stoics understood these words. Paul is speaking of an experiential awareness in love. In our upcoming gathering/workshop, my hope is that you and I will move through to the heart and experience this love through icons.
Icons are windows that show alive persons looking at God and God looking at them, only through the use of symbol. An icon depicts the transfigured countenance of a saint, and through that, the very beauty of God, as lived through their lives. Isn’t that what each of us, hopefully, is as well? Aren’t we icons of God?
More than just paintings Icons participate in the mystery of grace and become communicators of that grace (the reason we venerate them). Thus we call them windows or doorways. Icons are a depiction of the Gospels in line and color, and act as a visual bible telling the Gospel story, often.
Time with Josephine and Angelique
Our day together will gather us with Josephine and Angelique, with the companionship of Notre Dame du Bon Secours, our Mother. The workshop will be leisurely and reflective. Come rest a while together and participate in the mystery and grace of these icons.
About the Presenter:
Nancy Lee Smith, IHM, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, began her art career at Webster College and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in metal sculpture from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. She also majored in English and Theology, while her Master of Divinity is from St. John Seminary, Plymouth, Michigan. Her training includes apprenticeships with Ksenia Pokrovsky, co- founder of the Iconographers’ Society of Moscow, Russia. Writing icons full time for twelve years, her 85 icons hang in churches, lobbies and private homes in the Americas and Europe.
On a national scale, Sr. Nancy gives retreats, presentations and workshops on praying with icons, as well as on the specific saints whose icons she has written. She currently is completing commissions for Arlington, Virginia, Dublin, Ireland, St. Louis, Missouri and several places in Michigan and Ohio. www.saintjosephstudio.com
Registration & Payment Due By: Friday, February 1, 2008
Catechist certification available for those seeking clock hours: 1A
“Yours Truly: The Power of Commitment for Life-long Marriage”
Married couples, and couples contemplating marriage, are invited to enjoy a special dinner together in a warm and welcoming setting at Bon Secours Spiritual Center. Following dinner, speakers Lauri and John Przybysz will guide a reflection on the meaning of our promises to each other. A prayer service of recommitment to one another will conclude this joyful evening.
About the Presenters:
Lauri and John Przybysz are the president couple of the Christian Family Movement-USA, a national network of Catholics and their families who form small action groups to support marriage and family life. Lauri is the coordinator of Marriage and Family Enrichment for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and has an M.A. in Theology from St. Mary’s Seminary Ecumenical Institute, Baltimore. John is a physicist. They have 6 children and 10 grandchildren.
Suggested Reading:
Your Marriage, the Great Adventure, Kay and Gary Aitchison and Lauri Przybysz, published by The Christian Family Movement.
Contact 812-962-5508, office@cfm.org, $10.
Rekindle the Passion While Raising Your Kids, Anthony Garascia,
Sorin Books, (ISBN 1-893732-34-7)
A Daring Promise: The Spirituality of Christian Marriage, Richard Gaillardetz, Crossroad Publishing, (ISBN 0-8245-1935-3)
The Power of Commitment: A Guide to Lifelong Love, Scott Stanley,Jossey-Bass, (ISBN 0-7879-7928-7)
Ephesians 3 tells us, how we will, “…with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, (we) are filled with the utter fullness of God.” This “knowing” is a knowing that takes place in love, not with the head, the way the Stoics understood these words. Paul is speaking of an experiential awareness in love. In our upcoming gathering/workshop, my hope is that you and I will move through to the heart and experience this love through icons.
Icons are windows that show alive persons looking at God and God looking at them, only through the use of symbol. An icon depicts the transfigured countenance of a saint, and through that, the very beauty of God, as lived through their lives. Isn’t that what each of us, hopefully, is as well? Aren’t we icons of God?
About the Presenters:
