“You are the breath of God. You are the way God is aware of God in the immediacy of your life. You are the way God feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, frees the wrongly imprisoned. You are the way God brings justice, mercy, and humility to life.” – Cynthia Bourgeault

Mercy Center Burlingame, CA Centering Prayer and Wisdom Practices Program presents:

Holding Our Planet: Wisdom School with Cynthia Bourgeault

Begins with dinner on May 25th and ends with lunch on May 30th, 2024

This Wisdom School is aimed at contemplatives of all spiritual pathways who are deeply concerned about the global cultural and ecological crises imperiling our continued human existence on the planet. Join us as we come together to deepen our capacity to bring “skillful means” to the situation: forbearance, strength, compassion, right timing, spiritual generativity, and personal mettle.

We will gather in person at Mercy Center, Burlingame, CA and on ZOOM. The daily rhythm will include teaching and sustained work in core spiritual practices: the generation of necessary spiritual “nutrients” (such as faith, hope, trust, love); imaginal exchange; “cosmic dialysis” (a.k.a., tonglen); “prayer with moxie,” surrender, non-identification, sacred movements, chanting, and conscious work as well as silence for rest and integration.

Familiarity and resonance with Cynthia’s body of work is recommended. The Wisdom Way of Knowing is required reading. Before this Wisdom School, Cynthia’s senior students will offer online sessions in order to prepare participants to receive the most out of the retreat.

Retreat Leader & Centering Prayer Team:

Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally acclaimed retreat leader. She divides her time between solitude in her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom paths. She is principal teacher for The Contemplative Society and the founding director of an international network of Wisdom schools, uniting classic Christian mystical and monastic teaching with contemporary practices of mindfulness and embodied presence. Find out more at cynthiabourgeault.org.

Heather Ruce, M. A. is a Wisdom Spiritual Director who offers Wisdom Practice Circles, Retreats, and Wisdom Schools focused on the expansive Christian Wisdom Tradition. She works within the lineage of Wisdom Teacher Cynthia Bourgeault whom she has been a student of for over a decade. Heather weaves her Masters in Marital & Family Therapy and training in Somatic Experiencing, Organic Intelligence & Spiritual Direction into her teaching and guidance in various Wisdom practices, all in service of waking up and putting on the Mind of Christ. Find out more at heatherruce.com.

Joy Andrews Hayter, Ph.D. is a spiritual director whose offerings include Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices of the Christian Wisdom tradition. These practices encourage us  to lean into the Love that is constantly being offered within a relational web of Sacred Unity. As a scientist she sees in the physical world an expression of that love. Joy regularly offers retreats on Centering Prayer, often emphasizing the incarnational nature of the Christian path. She recently published The Cosmic Web: Hope for Our World Through Science and Spirituality. You can find more about her at joyfulfillment.com.

Catherine Regan, Ph.D. is a spiritual director, retired psychologist, and adjunct staff member at Mercy Center, primarily serving on the Centering Prayer team. She has a special interest in participating in the reclamation of the Christian Wisdom tradition and fostering the contemplative practices so urgently needed at this time in our world.

Zoom Team:

• Lacey Dodd
• Thomas Amsberry