Dear Wisdom Friends, Here’s an unusual New Year’s resolution! I’d like to propose that all of us in the Wisdom network declare 2015 THE YEAR OF TEILHARD DE CHARDIN and […]
An earlier version of this article appeared in Contemplative Journal Writing forty-eight years ago, Roman Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen predicted, “It is very likely that within fifty years when all […]
As many of you know, my old cat Lily, faithful travelling companion of these past fifteen years, died last week on my birthday, which happened to fall this year on […]
For this next blog post, I’m happy to turn the floor over to my beloved and insightful young friend, Gabrielle (Brie) Stoner. Here’s to the next generation!! — Cynthia On May 12, […]
Sometimes I find myself looking ahead in my calendar to do a survey of “coming events” thinking that once something major has happened things will turn back to normal (whatever that […]
“Eucharist” literally means “thanksgiving:” an offering up of praise and gratitude. Only in recent liturgical usage has the term come to be an accepted synonym for the Mass, or Holy […]
Dear Wisdom Friends, This email comes to invite you all, as dedicated Wisdom students, to rally behind Northeast Wisdom’s pilot fundraising campaign. As you know, Northeast Wisdom came into being […]
Fr. Bruno Barnhart, former prior of New Camaldoli Monastery, mystic, hermit, and my friend and spiritual father for more than thirty years, is now officially on the other side. He […]
“I think some of you will be happy to hear how Matthew is playing in my old British Columbia stomping ground.” ~ Cynthia On November 23 and 24, 2015, Matthew […]
The challenge of this time of year is not just that we have to stand against the temptation of trying to live up to the culture’s (or our mother’s) expectation […]
Almost exactly this time one year ago, I launched my “Teilhard Challenge,” inviting as many of you as felt so moved to join me in diving into the magnificent, challenging […]
In a deep and far-reaching discussion in our Gospel of Thomas group last week one of my good friends made a comment that has stuck with me and about which […]
In the previous Ash Wednesday reflection, I suggested that, “Living into our own fullest personhood seems to be contingent upon developing and releasing our talents and abilities into the world.” […]
This just in from one of my students, Lisa Whitlow from Kansas: Hi Cynthia – I hope this Lent finds you well and thriving. I am teaching a class at […]
This past weekend I made a brief escapade to the Big Apple for the American Teilhard Association Annual meeting featuring guest speaker, Ilia Delio. The brief trip was as crammed […]
(This post is a continuation of “The Planetary Pentecost – Part 1” Being the good Teilhard-geek that I am, and since I found myself near Teilhard’s NYC stomping grounds this […]
(This post is a continuation of “The Planetary Pentecost – Part 2” We’ve been exploring the idea that we are in the midst of a Planetary Pentecost: the arrival of […]
I was an exhausted young mother of two in 2014, a first year student at the Living School for Action and Contemplation, and after reading OF so many of my […]
Last Tuesday, July 12, the massive granite sculpture named “Two” by its creator, Maine sculptor Roy Patterson, took up its new home on my front lawn. Instantly it looked like […]
Big news, all you Wisdom Seekers. Thanks to the incredible persistence and deft touch of Wisdom student Joshua Tysinger, the priceless collection of unpublished writings by Beatrice Bruteau has come […]
The Day after the Presidential Election After a fitful sleep interrupted by phone calls and texts from worried and distraught friends, I awoke this morning to the grim reality of […]
I want to thank you all for the beauty of the work you are collectively doing around this election. There have been torrents of words already, and I am loath […]
We’d arranged to spend a day of sightseeing on my most recent teaching swing through the UK, so the afternoon of November 7 found me in a car with my […]
We’d arranged to spend a day of sightseeing on my most recent teaching swing through the UK, so the afternoon of November 7 found me in a car with my […]
Ring out the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in –Leonard Cohen, 1934-2016 Dear […]
Dear Wisdom friends, I want to make very clear to all of you that the “keep calm and carry on” tone of my earlier (immediately post-election) post does not imply […]
I am still on low to non-existent solar power on Eagle Island, but I want you to know that I am moved, encouraged, and overjoyed by this outpouring of response. […]
I see that many of you are already gearing up for the deep dive into Beelzebub’s Tales, so I did want to briefly share with you these few clarifications and tips.
I would like to set out a cautionary expansion of Cynthia’s words. I was spared being in the United States for the election. Despite best efforts I wasn’t able to […]
In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, […]
As this sea-change of a new year gets underway, this comes to call your attention to two timely opportunities for further Wisdom study and reflection along the lines of inquiry […]
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about conversation and the necessity of paying attention to the flow of our words. Since, as Christopher Fry* has said, “Affairs are now soul […]
An overview and critique by Cynthia Bourgeault. Now that Ken Wilber’s paper on “Trump and a Post-Truth World” is officially posted and making its rounds on the internet, I feel […]
I watched them disappear this morning into the snowstorm, making their way home through the Maine winter after an extraordinary weekend of prayer, tears-and-laughter, teaching, stories, and conversation. My tiny, […]
Wisdom and Money “Wisdom & Money,” continues the signature work of its predecessor Harvest Time: to engage with money as a doorway to spiritual transformation. For more than a decade […]
In honor of Holy Week, I wanted to share with you an excerpt from my “Becoming Truly Human: Gurdjieff’s Obligolnian Strivings” e-course, just now winding down. “And the fifth: the […]
A Poem: “Take Off Your Shoes” by Adwoa Lewis-Wilson. Take off your shoes, In fact, remove all your coverings – The cloak of achievement, adornments of knowledge, Every false veil […]
Our Second Annual Maine Wisdom Ingathering is now only a little more than a month away! This e-letter comes to bring you all up to date about how this year’s […]
Marcella Kraybill-Greggo attended her first full Wisdom School in the fall of 2014 at the Claymont Society in West Virginia. Cynthia Bourgeault offered a week long retreat, “Gurdjieff for Christian […]
This spring a collective of three Wisdom teachers, Marcella Kraybill-Greggo, Jeanine Siler Jones and Heather Ruce, completed an eight month series of Wisdom Circles in their respective communities. They coordinated […]
Both my spirits and my hopes have been raised by the recent appearance of an important and already game-changing new article in the most recent edition of La Civilta Cattolica. […]
In my previous blog (concurrently posted on both the Contemplative Society and Northeast Wisdom websites), I invited members of our Wisdom community to begin to engage a conversation on the […]
Three Centered Awareness from Cynthia’s teaching resonated powerfully for me when I was introduced to it experientially during the Mega Wisdom School at Kanuga in November 2015. Yet, the changes […]
Yesterday morning a desire ‘arose’ from among our Wisdom community to have a ‘communal time of prayer’ on behalf of our world. Our local (Bethlehem) Wisdom member said: “I was […]
Dear Wisdom Friends, I received the following in my inbox this past week from Jerry Toporovsky. Jerry is a senior teacher of the Gurdjieff Work and was the leader of […]
In this third installment of what now looks to be shaping up as five-part series, I hope to bring a Wisdom perspective to that profound liminal sphere encompassing conception, birth, […]
In June of this year, a merry band descended down the steep little hills into the North Atlantic lobstering port of Stonington, Maine as it opened its arms for the […]
ESSENCE According to Gurdjieff, the mysterious “x-factor” that enters in the moment of conception is not yet soul but essence. Think of it as the hand of cards you’re dealt […]
July Moravian Wisdom School 2017 On Sunday July 23, 2017, nineteen of us gathered to begin our first five-day Wisdom School at Moravian Theological Seminary. We varied in age (39-84), […]
But what about Psalm 139? The biggest challenge in wrapping one’s head around this Wisdom notion of a developmental soul — at least for traditionally reared religious folks — is […]