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 take on the collective task of getting to know his…
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 the trivial, verbose disputes about the meaning of Teilhard’s ‘unfortunate’…
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 Friday the thirteenth. It was a wrenching synchronicity, not only…
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 Photo courtesy of Robbin Whittington On May 12, 2015,…
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 is!) and I’ll be able to return to a rhythm of…
“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 Communion. In 1923, on an geological expedition deep in the…
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 a little over a year ago through a founding bequest…
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 chose the auspicious occasion of the eve of Advent for…
“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 Wright, an Episcopal priest from St. Gregory’s church in Woodstock,…
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 of how this holiday season is supposed to be transacted…
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 writings of Teilhard de Chardin. I know that many of…
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 I have given considerable thought. The point he made was…
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.” I also intimated that, while we needn’t be boastful or…
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 the Episcopal Cathedral here in Kansas City on the Gospel…
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 with experiences as Manhattan is crammed with people and Pentecost…
(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 past weekend, I figured it would be a momentous experience…
(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 a new church that is as big as the cosmos.…
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 grey haired cohorts’ luxurious prayer sits and long walks in…
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 it had been here for eons. I’m still in a…
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 to live at Emory University—alongside comparably priceless collections by such…
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 the day. How could this possibly be? How could we…
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 to contribute to the stream, particularly so many of you…
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 host Jackie Evans and my old friend John Moss, winding…
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 host Jackie Evans and my old friend John Moss, winding…
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 Wisdom seekers, I’d like to share with you some reflections…
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 that I’m feeling sanguine about the course of events now…
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. In proper Advent fashion, I’m pondering all of this in…
Day of Babette’s Feast Dear Wisdom friends, Wow! What an amazing heart outpouring from all of you! I feel the energy, the strength, and most important, the clarity. I believe that in the space of merely a week we have…
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 reschedule teaching a graduate seminar on peace agreements at the…
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, * and to guide our feet into the way of…
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 opened up in my two “post-election” blogs this past…
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 size,” it seems that our conversations should be the same.…
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 at liberty to share my initial “cliff notes” and comments…
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, plucky ‘conscious circle…how it tugged at my heart to see…
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 participants in Harvest Time circles have met to share their…
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 striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other…
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 of ‘self’. For the place you stand is holy ground.…
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 event is shaping up—and to announce that there are still…
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 Contemplatives: An Intensive Exploration of the Holy Trinity and the…
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 and supported one another as a group, working through the…
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 and supported one another as a group, working through the…
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. This is a prestigious Jesuit publication, whose contents are personally…
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 emotion-charged issue of abortion rights as a means to promote…
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 I have begun to notice and experience have taken on…
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 drawn back to the powerful experience many of us had…
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 our pilgrimage to Uzbekistan in 2015. I found it so…
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, and the formation of the soul. For it’s in the…
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 second Wisdom Ingathering, hosted by Cynthia Bourgeault. [caption id=”attachment_2917″ align=”aligncenter”…
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 at the start of a card game. It comprises a…
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), gender (18 women, 1 man), theological tradition (UCC, Quaker, Moravian,…