Faber Institute Podcast

The Night School, Series 16 (February through May 2025) - Light from LightIn the famous Creation account in Genesis 1, it was only on the fourth day of Creation that God created the sun and the moon - the light by which we see the physical world in the day and at night. But it was on the first day of Creation that God placed into the inmost fabric of our created world the inner light, giving humans the means to recognize God and the difference between what is good and what is bad (Genesis 1:3-4). In other words, long before the Light of the World was born of Mary, there was the inner light - the mark in all things of the Triune God who created and sustains all things - the light that guides “all who seek God with a sincere heart.”What this means is that long before Christ and then Christianity, great-souled human beings in all cultures and ages responded to and served the inner light. They were light from (the divine) Light, and the whole world reveres what they gave to humanity in their exceptionally accomplished lives.The four Parts of The Night School, Series 16, will search for the fruitfulness of the inner light in four great souls: Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Cicero (106-43 BCE), Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE), and, the sole Christian of this group, who knew the Light of the World, the Christ, John Cassian (360-430 CE).Welcome to Series 16.

The Night School, Series 16 (February through May 2025) - Light from LightIn the famous Creation account in Genesis 1, it was only on the fourth day of Creation that God created the sun and the moon - the light by which we see the physical world in the day and at night. But it was on the first day of Creation that God placed into the inmost fabric of our created world the inner light, giving humans the means to recognize God and the difference between what is good and what is bad (Genesis 1:3-4). In other words, long before the Light of the World was born of Mary, there was the inner light - the mark in all things of the Triune God who created and sustains all things - the light that guides “all who seek God with a sincere heart.”What this means is that long before Christ and then Christianity, great-souled human beings in all cultures and ages responded to and served the inner light. They were light from (the divine) Light, and the whole world reveres what they gave to humanity in their exceptionally accomplished lives.The four Parts of The Night School, Series 16, will search for the fruitfulness of the inner light in four great souls: Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Cicero (106-43 BCE), Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE), and, the sole Christian of this group, who knew the Light of the World, the Christ, John Cassian (360-430 CE).Welcome to Series 16.

The Night School, Series 16 (February through May 2025) - Light from LightIn the famous Creation account in Genesis 1, it was only on the fourth day of Creation that God created the sun and the moon - the light by which we see the physical world in the day and at night. But it was on the first day of Creation that God placed into the inmost fabric of our created world the inner light, giving humans the means to recognize God and the difference between what is good and what is bad (Genesis 1:3-4). In other words, long before the Light of the World was born of Mary, there was the inner light - the mark in all things of the Triune God who created and sustains all things - the light that guides “all who seek God with a sincere heart.”What this means is that long before Christ and then Christianity, great-souled human beings in all cultures and ages responded to and served the inner light. They were light from (the divine) Light, and the whole world reveres what they gave to humanity in their exceptionally accomplished lives.The four Parts of The Night School, Series 16, will search for the fruitfulness of the inner light in four great souls: Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Cicero (106-43 BCE), Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE), and, the sole Christian of this group, who knew the Light of the World, the Christ, John Cassian (360-430 CE).Welcome to Series 16.

The Fireside Gathering is an annual event in which we invite guests to come experience the works of the Institute. Funds raised through this event support the ongoing work of the Faber Institute - the work of souls - activated through classes, retreat, spiritual direction, writing and speaking. We invite you to support the Faber Institute by making a donation online: https://faberinstitute.com/donate/

In Series 15, we have picked our Guest based on the date when his or her feast day is celebrated (annually) according to the Catholic liturgical calendar. Mechthild's feast day is November 19th. She began a poem in this way: Ah blessed absence of God,How lovingly I am bound to you!You strengthen my will in its painAnd make dear to meThe long hard wait in my poor body.She, and in a way similar to Julian of Norwich (who was a Guest at The Night School in the Fall of 2018), Mechthild received a series of “revelations”, a series of intense experiences of God that profoundly deepened and recentered her life. Her effort to express what she saw and understood became a work that took her fourteen years to write, which she called The Flowing Light of the Godhead. About this one of the greatest living scholars of her thought has the following to say.Margot Schmidt writes - “Rather, it [this book] is the expression of a basic human drive that comes to the surface, sometimes more, sometimes less. To these basic human drives we can reckon hunger, love, sex, and a yearning for God. This last-mentioned drive appears to have been so smothered by the others that today we scarcely still perceive it as a basic drive. And yet, the testimony of the mystics teaches us that the human person in its capacity for God (capax Dei) soars above all other recognized drives and surpasses them in a marvelous and terrifying way, once we have been awakened by the spark of God's spirit or God's love. In the face of this bursting forth of a passion for God, everything else suddenly retreats. An important characteristic of this passion for God is that it irrevocably prevents us from falling back into an all too vapid and tame existence. In essence Mechthild of Magdeburg's book, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, is nothing other than the moving story of God's heart and the human heart, and of Lucifer's cunning attempts to interfere with the ties that join them.” [Margot Schmidt, “Preface,” in Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead, ed. Bernard McGinn, trans. Frank Tobin, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1998), xxv-xxvi.

The second Guest of our Series 15 of The Night School has her annual feast day on October 15th, which is one reason that we have chosen her to be our Guest on this night. She wrote in a letter in 1574: “It is necessary that we bear our weakness and not try to constrain our nature. Everything amounts to seeking God, since it is for Him that we search out every kind of means, and the soul must be led gently.”Britannica offers this short summary: "St. Teresa's beliefs centered on prayerful meditation and poverty for her sisters. St. Teresa of Avila (born March 28, 1515, Ávila, Spain—died October 4, 1582, Alba de Tormes; canonized 1622; feast day October 15) was a Spanish nun, one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church, and an author of spiritual classics. She was the originator of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of Carmelite life. St. Teresa was elevated to Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, the first woman to be so honored.”St. Teresa was our Guest at The Night School in the Spring of 2019, who was introduced to us by Joel Kibler. Teresa's inexhaustible depth and almost unparalleled grasp of the ways of God with human beings could cause us to choose to have her visit each year, and we still would only have experienced and understood a small part of her enduring gift to the world.

Saint Robert Bellarmine died in 1621, in the chronological center of the historical phenomenon known as the Counter-Reformation or the Catholic Reformation. He was a bishop, a cardinal, and a member of the relatively young Society of Jesus, founded by Saint Ignatius Loyola [and his nine companions] in 1540. In his own times and for many generations thereafter, he won wide recognition for his writings on the spiritual life, which ran through many editions and translations. He also won recognition for his writings against the Protestants and especially for his opposition to certain ecclesiological [church life] ideas espoused by King James I of England. When he was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930, he brought with him into our own century his reputation for skill in religious controversy rather than his fame as a writer on spirituality, which had been part and parcel of the esteem in which he was held in earlier centuries. [John O'Malley,“ Preface, ”in Robert Bellarmine: Spiritual Writings, ed. John Patrick Donnelly, Roland J. Teske, and John Farina, trans. John Patrick Donnelly and Roland J. Teske, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1989), 3.]

This fifth and final Guest of this Night School series (Series XIV on Angels: A Forgotten Friendship) is a 4-year old runaway child, whose name is Anna, whom the author, Fynn (a pseudonym), met in the middle of the night on the street in the dockyards in 1930s London. Fynn, a 16-year old when he met Anna, would be profoundly “schooled” in some of the most profound questions about life, and especially, about “Mister God”.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.

In Part IV of the Angels: A Forgotten Friendship Night School series, Rick Ganz introduces us to St. Peter Faber, SJ and his book At Work with Angels. 

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 8 on The Last Battle from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Rick Ganz.“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year's Lenten Meditations, offered on each of the six Sundays of Lent, have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.The Meditations will contemplate deeply what exactly it is that we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sake. In each episode of the Meditations, we will stand with Jesus during a particular moment of his Passion to notice not only the pain he experiences, but what he does with the pain, and together we will wonder if perhaps God relates to suffering very differently than we do. May the time you spend side by side with the suffering Christ this Lent bring you ever closer to his beautiful heart.

In Part III of this Night School series on Angels: A Forgotten Friendship, we explore how it was that Angels became more fully integrated into the theological (not only the biblical) understanding of the Christian Church. Someone of the enormous capabilities of St. Augustine (353-430 CE) was the one to do this.

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year's Lenten Meditations, offered on each of the six Sundays of Lent, have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.The Meditations will contemplate deeply what exactly it is that we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sake. In each episode of the Meditations, we will stand with Jesus during a particular moment of his Passion to notice not only the pain he experiences, but what he does with the pain, and together we will wonder if perhaps God relates to suffering very differently than we do. May the time you spend side by side with the suffering Christ this Lent bring you ever closer to his beautiful heart.

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year's Lenten Meditations, offered on each of the six Sundays of Lent, have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.The Meditations will contemplate deeply what exactly it is that we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sake. In each episode of the Meditations, we will stand with Jesus during a particular moment of his Passion to notice not only the pain he experiences, but what he does with the pain, and together we will wonder if perhaps God relates to suffering very differently than we do. May the time you spend side by side with the suffering Christ this Lent bring you ever closer to his beautiful heart.

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 7 on The Horse and His Boy from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Rick Ganz."Child," said the Lion, "I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own."

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year's Lenten Meditations, offered on each of the six Sundays of Lent, have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.The Meditations will contemplate deeply what exactly it is that we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sake. In each episode of the Meditations, we will stand with Jesus during a particular moment of his Passion to notice not only the pain he experiences, but what he does with the pain, and together we will wonder if perhaps God relates to suffering very differently than we do. May the time you spend side by side with the suffering Christ this Lent bring you ever closer to his beautiful heart.

In Part I, we had a narrative introduction to the work and mission of Angels - of a particular Angel, Raphael, at work among human beings - in the biblical Book of Tobit. In Part II, we are taken into a broader, deeper description of the Angels and their mission by the learned Jesuit Fr. Jean Danielou, SJ in his book published in 1953 (and still in print) The Angels and Their Mission.With an accessible style and motivated by spiritual zeal to communicate clearly and movingly, Fr. Danielou gets us to notice how widely present are the Angels in the Bible, and very significantly present in the life and work of Jesus. We are shown how seriously the greatest of the early Christian teachers (the "Fathers of the Church" as they are called) took Angels and wrote about them.The Angels were there all along, but nearly all of us have overlooked them, thinking them a fanciful decoration (a symbol for something else, etc.), things not worthy of our attention.

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year's Lenten Meditations, offered on each of the six Sundays of Lent, have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.The Meditations will contemplate deeply what exactly it is that we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sake. In each episode of the Meditations, we will stand with Jesus during a particular moment of his Passion to notice not only the pain he experiences, but what he does with the pain, and together we will wonder if perhaps God relates to suffering very differently than we do. May the time you spend side by side with the suffering Christ this Lent bring you ever closer to his beautiful heart.

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year's Lenten Meditations, offered on each of the six Sundays of Lent, have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.The Meditations will contemplate deeply what exactly it is that we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has suffered for our sake. In each episode of the Meditations, we will stand with Jesus during a particular moment of his Passion to notice not only the pain he experiences, but what he does with the pain, and together we will wonder if perhaps God relates to suffering very differently than we do. May the time you spend side by side with the suffering Christ this Lent bring you ever closer to his beautiful heart.

A Pilgrim's Retreat is an act of sustained prayer by each of you - the Retreatant. It is spiritual exercise, because there is real effort involved, letting God really have you, your full attention, for the day.A Retreatant is helped to stay attentive and available to God by the presence of others making the same effort and by the Retreat Directors - Rick Ganz and Tara Ludwig - who shape the Retreatant's effort, and guide him or her, through a structure of spiritual Talks, silent prayer, time outside in Nature, and communal reflection.This Retreat will explore how it is that God has chosen to work WITH us rather than FOR us.

A Pilgrim's Retreat is an act of sustained prayer by each of you - the Retreatant. It is spiritual exercise, because there is real effort involved, letting God really have you, your full attention, for the day.A Retreatant is helped to stay attentive and available to God by the presence of others making the same effort and by the Retreat Directors - Rick Ganz and Tara Ludwig - who shape the Retreatant's effort, and guide him or her, through a structure of spiritual Talks, silent prayer, time outside in Nature, and communal reflection.This Retreat will explore how it is that God has chosen to work WITH us rather than FOR us.

A Pilgrim's Retreat is an act of sustained prayer by each of you - the Retreatant. It is spiritual exercise, because there is real effort involved, letting God really have you, your full attention, for the day.A Retreatant is helped to stay attentive and available to God by the presence of others making the same effort and by the Retreat Directors - Rick Ganz and Tara Ludwig - who shape the Retreatant's effort, and guide him or her, through a structure of spiritual Talks, silent prayer, time outside in Nature, and communal reflection.This Retreat will explore how it is that God has chosen to work WITH us rather than FOR us.

A Pilgrim's Retreat is an act of sustained prayer by each of you - the Retreatant. It is spiritual exercise, because there is real effort involved, letting God really have you, your full attention, for the day.A Retreatant is helped to stay attentive and available to God by the presence of others making the same effort and by the Retreat Directors - Rick Ganz and Tara Ludwig - who shape the Retreatant's effort, and guide him or her, through a structure of spiritual Talks, silent prayer, time outside in Nature, and communal reflection.This Retreat will explore how it is that God has chosen to work WITH us rather than FOR us.

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 6 on The Silver Chair from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Paul Pastor."I have come," said a deep voice behind them. They turned and saw the Lion himself, so bright and real and strong that everything else began at once to look pale and shadowy compared with him.

We begin our development of a more sufficient explanation of Angels than we typically rely on with the biblical Book of Tobit, a book included in the collection of Scripture that Jesus would have known. This “short story” is charming, interesting, and at times profoundly beautiful. It was in this Book that the Judeo-Christian tradition has one of its significant starting points concerning Angels.Angels are everywhere attested in the Scriptures, and they regularly appear with Jesus, helping Him, assisting Him. Consider, how His conception was announced to Mary of Nazareth by the Angel that tradition calls “Gabriel”; His birth was announced to the shepherds by an Angel, and then the Heavens became “filled” with Angels praising this fact. And consider the two Angels who sat inside the empty tomb after the resurrection of Jesus, who met Mary Magdalene there and gave her instructions.What is the deal with Angels? For what purpose did God create them? Are Angels “necessary”?, as some ask, who really have no idea how to think about Angels.The Book of Tobit (written sometime between 250 BCE and 175 BCE - around the time that the Book of Daniel was written) is a good, accessible place to start our exploration.

Series 14 of The Night School for Deeper Learning, led by Rick Ganz, is titled "Angels: A Forgotten Friendship." The series will be about us deconstructing the wrong assumptions that we have made about the angels, when or if we ever bother to think about them. We will seek to open up for us a sufficient way to understand the reality of the angels and their godly purposes among us. What is God up to in this calamitous Age of our world and society? Might be be trying to open up for us, through the helplessness that we can feel these days, a way to discover a forgotten friendship?

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 5 on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Rick Ganz.“Dearest,” said Aslan very gently, “you and your brother will never come back to Narnia.”“Oh, Aslan!!” said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.“You are too old, children,” said Aslan, “and you must begin to come close to your own world now.”“It isn't Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.“Are—are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

Edith Stein (1891-1942) was born a Jew, separated herself from Judaism at the age of 13, claiming, as an honest agnostic will insist, “I am sure that their God is not God. I have still not met God.” She pursued a life of Philosophy, gaining a reputation as one of the most powerful and original Philosophers in the German world. But it was when she read, from cover to cover throughout one long night, the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, that she exclaimed what she had experienced that night: “This is the truth!” She became baptized as a Catholic and eventually entered the Carmelite Order. Eventually she was hunted down by the Nazi Gestapo and transported to Auschwitz where she died.

Part IV of this series will take a pause on The Chronicles of Narnia and shift to a special reading of Christmas Carols.This Session is led by Rick Ganz who will “read”, and find the lessons within, the great carols of the Advent-Christmas season.

Edith Stein (1891-1942) was born a Jew, separated herself from Judaism at the age of 13, claiming, as an honest agnostic will insist, “I am sure that their God is not God. I have still not met God.” She pursued a life of Philosophy, gaining a reputation as one of the most powerful and original Philosophers in the German world. But it was when she read, from cover to cover throughout one long night, the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, that she exclaimed what she had experienced that night: “This is the truth!” She became baptized as a Catholic and eventually entered the Carmelite Order. Eventually she was hunted down by the Nazi Gestapo and transported to Auschwitz where she died.

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 3 on Prince Caspian from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Rick Ganz.

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (1881-1955) was a Frenchman, Jesuit priest, geologist and paleontologist, and above all a mystic. At the center of his mysticism was a vision of how God is intensely alive and motivated with majestic purpose to bring all created things (not just human beings) into conscious unity. His stunningly beautiful vision of the unstoppable glory of God was given him during the four years that he served as a stretcher-bearer to soldiers fighting in the trenches of World War I.

The “shape” of this Retreat will be structured around four Talks by Rick Ganz concerning the discernment of spirits. Such Talks are not a “class”; they are a specific way of speaking to you, appealing to the deepest parts of you, so that you are helped to become more open to God. The Talks matter only if they open you in this way; only if the Holy Spirit becomes alive and active in you because of the Talks and the silence and the sharing with other retreatants.

The “shape” of this Retreat will be structured around four Talks by Rick Ganz concerning the discernment of spirits. Such Talks are not a “class”; they are a specific way of speaking to you, appealing to the deepest parts of you, so that you are helped to become more open to God. The Talks matter only if they open you in this way; only if the Holy Spirit becomes alive and active in you because of the Talks and the silence and the sharing with other retreatants.

The “shape” of this Retreat will be structured around four Talks by Rick Ganz concerning the discernment of spirits. Such Talks are not a “class”; they are a specific way of speaking to you, appealing to the deepest parts of you, so that you are helped to become more open to God. The Talks matter only if they open you in this way; only if the Holy Spirit becomes alive and active in you because of the Talks and the silence and the sharing with other retreatants.

The “shape” of this Retreat will be structured around four Talks by Rick Ganz concerning the discernment of spirits. Such Talks are not a “class”; they are a specific way of speaking to you, appealing to the deepest parts of you, so that you are helped to become more open to God. The Talks matter only if they open you in this way; only if the Holy Spirit becomes alive and active in you because of the Talks and the silence and the sharing with other retreatants.

The “shape” of this Retreat will be structured around four Talks by Rick Ganz concerning the discernment of spirits. Such Talks are not a “class”; they are a specific way of speaking to you, appealing to the deepest parts of you, so that you are helped to become more open to God. The Talks matter only if they open you in this way; only if the Holy Spirit becomes alive and active in you because of the Talks and the silence and the sharing with other retreatants.

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 2 on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Rick Ganz.“Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office.”

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (1881-1955) was a Frenchman, Jesuit priest, geologist and paleontologist, and above all a mystic. At the center of his mysticism was a vision of how God is intensely alive and motivated with majestic purpose to bring all created things (not just human beings) into conscious unity. His stunningly beautiful vision of the unstoppable glory of God was given him during the four years that he served as a Chaplain to soldiers fighting in the trenches of World War I.

Our Guests for Series 13 are two mystics, each of whom we will invite twice to The Night School: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Edith Stein.They were contemporaries in the 20th century, who in their professional lives were scholars of the highest order and who in their inner lives sacrificed much for the sake of God and for what God gave each of them to give to the world. One was a man and one was a women; one was French and one was German; one was a Catholic Christian from birth and one was a Jew who became a Catholic; one was a Jesuit Priest (the Society of Jesus) and one was a Carmelite nun; one was “hard” scientist in the fields of Geology and Paleontology and one was a philosopher; one spent his life under suspicion by his fellow Jesuits and by the Catholic Church and one was hunted by the Nazis and eventually exterminated in the gas chambers at Auschwitz; one died on Easter Sunday and one was canonized a Saint and designated by the Catholic Church a co-patroness of Europe. Both responded to the 20th century in such different ways; both were mystics of vision daring.

The Faber Sessions #10 Part 1 on The Magician's Nephew from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, presented by Rick Ganz.“We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew's point of view. It had not made at all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children. For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.”

Series 1 of The Faber Sessions in April-May 2020 was an exploration of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, written by him in the decade after World War II, the seven novels published, one per year, from 1950 to 1956. In that Spring of 2020, we read all seven novels - a novel per week - as the pandemic (impacting us in March 2020) had week by week locked us into our homes. We offered Series 1 to a select group, online. Now in this Series 10, we invite all of you to join us online (i.e, in your own homes and during the dinner hour: you are welcome to eat as you listen and engage) as we make our way into Narnia again: one novel a month from September 2023 to April 2023, with a pause taken for a special Session on Christmas Carols in December 2023. Each of these novels is like the experience we have of the best people we know, who are so approachable on first meeting them but whose depth and richness of insight becomes more and more as we know them better. The novels by Lewis are masterpieces - intensely wise and well-told tales.

Series 12 of The Night School of the Faber Institute explores, Guest by Guest, month by month, how it happens that when evil has gotten into the fabric of a culture (e.g., American culture), the soul/a person instinctively “retracts” in revulsion (very often unnoticed by a person - this retraction). That is, evil is a toxin that corrupts things so central to the soul's essence that the soul/a person “pulls back” and finds/ establishes a defensive position in relation to that evil (doing this most often without noticing that he or she has done this). The soul/a person seeks a “safe” spot (i.e., a way of understanding himself or herself) in which to hide, something which Becker powerfully describes as “the vital lie”. When this is happening on a broad front in the people of an unhealthy culture, those people/that nation (government, church, social class) will quickly lose track of what being a human being actually is. Not knowing who we are at this fundamental level of awareness leaves us too able to be manipulated to “conform” to someone else's “safe” version - vital lie - of personhood.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.

A Mother's Retreat is an annual retreat of the Faber Institute for mothers of all ages, from pregnant women and new moms with babies, to empty nesters and grandmothers. Tara Ludwig, Spiritual Director at Faber Institute and mother of three little ones, is the Retreat Director, guiding us through a reverent exploration of the power of “Mother”. Together, we consider how our spiritual capacities as mothers create depth and meaning within our own homes and families, as well as empower us as agents of tenderness in a broken world. Through deep reflection and prayer, inspiring and honest dialogue, as well as shared laughter and tears, we are at common cause in affirming the dignity of motherhood and its role in fostering a more united human family.