Podcasts about nouwen

"We have to know the darkness to be able to search for the light," according to Henri Nouwen.  And he goes on to claim that we need lostness, in the search for meaning.  With so much disorder, lostness, darkness, denial and confusion, I'd like to read most of a letter written by Nouwen that seems to address our age, people like you and me.  I hope you'll hear something encouraging, no matter how wild and meandering your path.  Enjoy!

In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, Jon Eckert interviews Christina Crook, author of The Joy of Missing Out and founder of JOMO Campus. Christina shares how a 31-day internet fast sparked a global movement around digital wellness. She discusses the impact of tech addiction on attention, relationships, and mental health.  Christina shares the transformation happening in schools that embrace phone-free environments. Through strategic programs and student-driven goals, she shows how embracing JOMO empowers young people to live with purpose and become light in dark digital spaces. The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Be encouraged. Mentioned: The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World by Christina Crook experience JOMO Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen Connect with us: Center for School Leadership at Baylor University Jon Eckert LinkedIn Baylor MA in School Leadership     Jon Eckert: All right, Christina, welcome to the Just Schools Podcast. We've been big fans of your work for a long time. So, tell us a little bit about how you got into this work. Christina Crook: Yeah. Thanks for having me, Jon. This has been a long time coming, it's a joy to be here. So, yeah, how did the work of JOMO begin? I began my career in public broadcasting based here in Canada at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. And my education was a pretty critical look at mass communication, that was my background. And so, when social media started emerging early in my career in journalism, I was pretty keyed into the negatives early on. I was always asking the question, even when Facebook, and this is obviously dating me, emerged on the scene, that is the earliest major social media platform, I was always asking the question, "What is this displacing? Where is this time going to come from? How is this shifting my creative behaviors and my relationships?" And so, around that time, early in my career, I actually made a major move from Vancouver to Toronto. So, think just like West Coast to East Coast, essentially. And in one fell swoop, all of my relationships were all of a sudden mediated by the internet, because I'd made this major move, I only had really one close friend in the area I was moving to. And so, I started to notice my own digital behaviors shifting, and I was becoming more and more uncomfortable with my own social media habits. I was sort of creeping on the lives of my friends and family back home. Remember the good old Facebook wall? We would just do that now through snaps or whatever, see what people or the stories they're sharing. So, I was doing a lot of that and not going through the deeper, harder work of connecting directly with the people that I loved. I was also not getting to just creative projects that I was really passionate about, like writing. I'm a creative writer, so poetry and these different things. And so, I had a curiosity about what would happen if I completely disconnected from the internet for a large chunk of time. And so, I ended up doing a 31-day fast from the internet to explore what it was like to navigate the world, a very increasingly digital world, without the internet. And so, basically, off of that experiment, I wrote a series of essays and I had to publish a reach out to me about expanding off of that into a book, and that book became the Joy of Missing Out. And that is where the work of JOMO began. Jon Eckert: And when did that book get published? Christina Crook: 10 years ago. Jon Eckert: Yeah. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: See, I feel like you were way ahead of the curve. This is before Jonathan Haidt had made this his passion project and other people were talking about it. So now, I think back then this would've been an early alarm. And so, I guess as you look at the future and where you're at, you've had 10 years, I'd love to hear about some of the success that you've seen and some of this shifting narrative, because I think what you shared, any adult can connect with that feeling of that being inbondaged to your device. I deleted my email from my phone in January and that has been unbelievably freeing, because I check that 70 to 80 times a day. And I tell everybody, it's embarrassing because at least Facebook and social media, there's something fun about it. Email's not fun. Hearing from your finance director that you need to do something different at 11:15 at night, it's no fun. And I was addicted to that and I got rid of it. So, I think we all have felt that, but I'd love to hear some of the success you've seen with schools, particularly, or anyone else, because I think there's a value in this for all of us. Christina Crook: Yeah. So, when I started in this space, definitely I could count on one hand the people that were actively talking about this. If I even suggested to a person that they had an addictive relationship with their phone, they would get their backs up, like, "How dare you even suggest this to me?" And since then, of course, just the acceleration of the conversation, the long-term studies showing the negative impacts on our attention spans, mental health, all of the things that we talk about on a daily basis now. But the expression of JOMO in schools came about a number of years ago when the head of the wellness department at Virginia Tech reached out to me. Unbeknownst to me, she'd been following my work for years, through my podcast and books and these sorts of things. And in her own words, their best and brightest students were coming back to campus languishing before classes had even started. And as a department, we talk about the wellness wheel, the eight dimensions of wellness, and they were seeing, across their department, how digital overuse or misuse was impacting all of these different dimensions of student well-being. And so, they'd gone looking for a digital wellness program for their students. They came up empty, one didn't exist, and so the invitation from them was to co-create a program with them. And so, that became four months of just discovery, first hand reading of the college health assessment, looking for the most recent college health assessment at Virginia Tech, looking for threads and needs and opportunities, for 10 interviews with staff and students. And there we concepted a four-week digital wellness challenge for their first year students. Through our pilot programs, we saw a 73.8% behavior change. Students not only had made a change to their digital habits, but they intended to continue with those changes. And their changes, just like you're describing, Jon, like the one you did, which is tactically, for example, in our week one building better focus, is removing those things. We know that environmental changes are the most powerful to change a habit in our digital and our physical spaces. So, things like removing an app that is an absolute time sack, or it's just created a very unhealthy habit is the power move. And so, the reason why it was so successful for students is because they'd maybe thought about making a change to their digital habits, but they've never actually done it. And here they were being incentivized to take the action. And when they did, they felt immediate benefits. So, we knew we were onto something and that's where the work of the campus work began. Jon Eckert: Well, and so I think if adults feel that, how much more important is that for kids? Mine happened as a part of a 28-day digital fast that Aaron Whitehead, the book he put out on that, that our church went through it. And when I did it, the idea was, just take 28 days free of it and then you can introduce things back in. Why would I introduce that back in? Christina Crook: Totally. Jon Eckert: So, it's been great. I also do not look at my phone until after I've spent time in the Word and praying and writing each morning. And I don't even look at the phone. It used to be my alarm clock. I got an old analog alarm clock, I moved that out, that was powerful. So, as an adult, I feel that. So, I cannot imagine how 13 and 14-year-olds could deal with that. That feels like not just an uphill battle, that feels like the hill is on top of them. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: So, I'm curious. You mentioned Snapchat and I don't know if you saw this. This week, Jonathan Haidt on his substat came out with the court proceedings where he's done it to TikTok, now he's done it to Snapchat. And we've always said hard no to Snapchat, because Snapchat just feels like it was evil from the beginning, with disappearing content that you can't track but then can be screenshotted and any number of bad things can happen. But I just wanted to read this quote to you, because this is why I think your work is so important on so many levels. This was from a New Mexico court case. He said this: "A Snap's director of security engineering said, regarding Android users who are selling drugs or child sexual abuse material on Snap. These are some of the most despicable people on earth." This is his quote, this is a director of security. "That's fine. It's been broken for 10 years. We can tolerate tonight." That blows my mind. And so, this is what parents and educators are up against, because in my mind, that is evil. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: That is pure evil. So, that's where it's not just addiction to things that are relatively harmless in moderation, this is pushing back on something that is really, really invasive. And Jonathan Haidt talks all about this, the predators that are online, we worry about the people in the real world and the real challenges are virtual. So, where, in your current work, are you seeing some of this success paying benefits in protecting kids, A, but B, more importantly, leading to flourishing? Christina Crook: Yeah. So, Jon, as you know, our work has shifted from the college space down now into high schools, primarily with private Christian high schools. And where we're seeing wins and gains is at the base level of education. We talk very early on, with students, about the different systems that are at work in each of the platforms they use on a daily basis. So, let's use a TikTok or a Snap, for example. We talk about gamified systems, we talk about hook modeling, all of the mechanisms that are there to keep them. We talk about streaks. And then we have them assess the different platforms they're using and they need to identify what are the different models and how are they functioning within the platform? I think many of us can remember when the live updating feature showed up on the early social media platforms, but many of those platforms were out for many years before the live updating feature came into play. Of course, streaks, which is just the most terrible design feature ever, but students don't really stop and think about it. But when you actually invite them to look critically, and this is why the foundation of my own education was so critical, is because I was always, and I continue to come to each of these platforms asking those hard questions. So, the gains we see with students actually looking critically at the platforms they're using on a daily basis, that's where the big wins are coming. Also, we have students do their own goal setting. So, when we work with a school, one of our first questions we ask students is, we get them to imagine, "Okay, it's graduation day, so congratulations, you've just graduated from the high school that you're listening from right now. You're wearing your cap and gown. You're looking back at your time at school and you have absolutely no regrets. What did you experience and what did you accomplish during your time here?" And students kind of get this far afield look in their eyes and they start to wonder and consider. And so, they start to tell these beautiful stories of, "I want to make lifelong friends. I want to make friendships that will sustain me into adulthood or into college. I want to get a great GPA, because I want to get into this school." I try and prompt them sometimes to think of more fun things like, "You want to get a boyfriend." There's play, like you were saying earlier. What are the fun elements also of the experience you want to have here? I say, "Great." Jon Eckert: Is there a JOMO dating app? Christina Crook: Not yet, but we are consistently hearing from our partner schools that dating is up because students are talking to each other, which is my favorite thing. But yeah, so students share all of these goals and aspirations they have. And I say, "Great. Is the way you're currently using your phone, your primary device, helping you accomplish or experience these things?" And so, we're connecting it to what they actually want. When you start talking to a kid about technology, all they hear is the Charlie Brown teacher. They just assume that an adult is going to hate on the way they're using tech and the tech that they're using. And so, we're trying to connect it to, "What are your desires, wants?" And that is where I believe the root to flourishing is, because it has to be. It's the desire within them. What is it that they desire, what is that core desire? And then how can they bring their technology use in alignment with that? Do I think that Snap should be thrown out the window? Well, yeah, mostly I do. I do think there are ways to strategically use almost every platform. We're a people that believe in redemption. These platforms, there are elements of them that can be redeemed. And so, yes, it is easier to eliminate an entire platform and I think there are some that, by and large, we should avoid. But I do think we also need to be asking the question, "How can these technologies be used to our benefit?" Jon Eckert: Okay. So, I want to start with, I love the question you ask about what would a life without regrets, when you graduate, look like? That's amazing. Love that. I also feel like I've gotten some traction with kids talking about the way the adults in their lives use their devices, because that opens the door for them to say, "Oh, yeah, I don't really like..." The Pew research study that came out last year that 46% of kids report having been phubbed, phone snubbed, by their parents when they want to talk. That's real, because everybody's felt it. And it really stinks when your primary caregiver is doing that to you. The only thing I will push back on is, I do not believe in the redemption of platforms. I believe in the redemption of human beings. And I absolutely believe that there are platforms online, some of them I won't even mention on air, but that release pornography to the world. Those do not need to, nor can they be redeemed and they should absolutely be shut down. And I don't know where on the continuum Snapchat fits, but when I see testimony like that from your director of security, I'm like, "Yeah, I have a hard time saying that that can be redeemed, nor should it be redeemed," when the in-person connection that Snapchat replaces and the streaks that it puts out there. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: Yes, if you eliminated those things, which are what monetize it, then maybe it could be redeemed, but then there is no financial incentive to redeem it. So, I would push on that, that platforms can be redeemed. And some of them shouldn't be. Now, can they be used for good? Yes. Some, not all. But Snapchat could be used to encourage a friend, could be used to... There are ways you could use it. But are there better ways? Yeah. Christina Crook: Absolutely. Jon Eckert: Let's do that, because I think that life without regrets would look differently than, "Oh, yeah, I really sent a really encouraging Snap in my junior year of high school, it made a difference." As opposed to, "I showed up for a kid in person when they were struggling." Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: I feel like we've gotten this proxy virtue signaling where like, "Oh, I posted something about that." Who cares? What did you do about it? Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: And that is where I think your question hits on. But feel free to react. Christina Crook: No, it's great pushback. I think the posture that we're always taking with students is, we're not starting with, "You need to eliminate this," because the assumption they have is that it's just detox. It's just the removal of something. And we're saying, "What are the joys?" That's the joy of missing out. That is our body of work. What are the joys we can enter into when we mindfully, intentionally disconnect from the internet, or use it in ways that support our wellbeing and our goals? Jon Eckert: Yeah, no, that's always the way. With any change, you always have to be moving towards something instead of moving away. And so, you've got to make it invitational and inviting. And that's why JOMO makes so much sense. So, what do you see, you can take this in whatever order you want, is the biggest obstacles and opportunities for the work that you're doing? So, you can start with opportunities or obstacles, but take them both. Christina Crook: Yeah. So, I think it's one and the same. It's parent partnership. I think it's schools' partnership with parents. We know that the majority of technology used, especially now that we've got mostly phone free or phone controlled... Majority of the schools are moving in the phone free or phone controlled. The school direction that the minute students walk off campus, it becomes the parental responsibility. So, one of the challenges schools are facing is parents communicating with their kids all day long through the exact tools that we've asked them to put away. So, the kid's excuse is, "Well, my mom needs to message me." And so, there is this security conversation. "I need my phone to be safe." And so, addressing that, and of course in the U.S. landscape, there are real safety concerns with inside schools, and so there's a legitimacy to that. But how do schools clearly communicate and solve for that? So, we see beautiful examples. I'll use Eastern Christian and New Jersey as an example. So, they partnered with JOMO and Yonder at the same time to roll out their phone free mandate, they wrapped around the Yonder initiative with Joy and Digital Wellness Curriculum and Education. But what they did was, they established a student phone. A student phone in the school that doesn't require... There's no gate keeping. So, oftentimes they'll be like, "Oh, but you can just go to the office and use the phone." But there's a whole bunch of apprehension for students about necessarily making a phone call, for example, in front of the secretary. So, I thought that was a great solve. That was a great solve and we share that with other schools. The opportunity is parent partnership and education. So, we are solving that by providing our partner schools with just direct plug and play parent education that goes into the regular school communications, that's digital wellbeing strategies for families, conversation starters across all the age brackets, from K to 12, additional education and resources, and then just beautiful aspirational stories of Christian families that are navigating the complexity of managing technology in a way that's really human and honest and open. So, I think it's parent partnership. And then of course we're seeing great movements around parent pacts. I heard about Oak Hill here in Greater Toronto, that they've actually, as students come in, they're having parents sign a parent pact to delay phone use until the age of 16. It is as a community, that's a very low tech school. And so, the opportunities and initiatives around parents, I think, is exciting. Jon Eckert: That's very Jonathan Haidt of them. Christina Crook: Yes. Jon Eckert: And I think it is a lot easier when you do that as a group than as an individual parent or kid where you feel excluded. I just wanted to ask you this, based on what you said with the designated phone at the school. Eric Ellison, our great mutual friend, sent me this Truce software. Are you familiar with this? Christina Crook: I am, yes. We're getting to know them. Jon Eckert: What do you think? Christina Crook: So, I haven't got a chance to see it in practice, but to me, theoretically, Truce is the best possible solution. Jon Eckert: Yes. That's what it looks like to me, not having seen it in action. But talk about why you think that is, because our listeners may have no idea what this is. Christina Crook: Yes. So, Truce is a geofencing product. So, the moment everyone comes onto campus, the ability or functionality of your personal devices is controlled by Truce. So, that means that for all phones coming onto campus, automatically, the moment you drive or walk onto campus, you cannot access social media, for example. But you can continue to message your parents all day long and vice versa. And there are other controls for teachers. There's a lot of customization within it, but it just makes sense, because all the VPNs, all the workarounds, it finally solves for that, because schools are just product on product on product, firewall on firewall, and students are very smart and they have a million workarounds. And this is the only solution I've seen that solves for all of those problems. Jon Eckert: And that's what I wanted to know, because students are so savvy about getting around them. The only drawback I see, because I do think this breaks down a lot of the parent concerns and it makes so you don't have the lockers, you don't have to have the pouches, you don't have to do all the management of phones, is challenging when you have to take them from students. Christina Crook: Yes. Jon Eckert: Or you have to let them carry them around in their pockets, like crack cocaine in a locked magnetic box. Christina Crook: Don't touch it, don't touch it. Don't use it. Jon Eckert: Yeah, right. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: So, I like it theoretically. The only drawback is, and Haidt wrote about this in 2023, there is some benefit, especially to high school students, to not having a constant access to a parent to complain about what's going on in school. A teacher gives you a grade and that's the way the student would see it. The teacher gives you a grade you don't like, and then you're immediately on your phone complaining to your parent. And before the kid even gets home, a parent's in the office to advocate or complain, depending on your perspective. Christina Crook: Yes. Jon Eckert: For the student, that constant contact is not always healthy. But I get like, "Hey, if that was the only issue that schools had to deal with with phones, that would be a win." And it does keep communication with the parent and the kid. And I, as much as I hate it, have absolutely texted my children in high school something that I need them to know after school. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: And it is great when they can know those things in real time, because I didn't think far enough ahead to let them know beforehand, and I don't call the office regularly. So, I get that. But any other drawbacks you see to Truce? Because to me it does feel like a pretty ideal solution. Christina Crook: No, I think Truce plus JOMO is the winning combo. Jon Eckert: Right. And you need to understand why it's being done, because otherwise it feels like you're going to phone prison. And really, what you're saying is, no, there's this freedom for so much more if we take away these things that are turning you into a product. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: So, yeah. Christina Crook: And I will say, when I go into a school, I'll talk to them in a chapel, for example, with students. I basically say, "I'm in support. Props to, basically, your leadership for creating a phone controlled or phone free environment." And there's three core reasons why, and one of them is that, fragmented technologies, the studies are showing finally what I intuitively knew, and I think many of us intuitively knew more than 10 years ago, but that fragmented technology use is actually healthier. The least healthy way to live with technology is continuously. It's the first thing you touch when you wake up, the middle of the day, which props to you, Jon, for changing that habit. And it's the last thing you look at at night. And then it's tethered to your body all day long. So, those breaks from the devices. And let's be real, the students, even if they have them on their person with a Truce-like product, they're not going to be reaching... It will be fragmented still, because they don't have anything to really reach for. Are you going to check your phone 1,800 times to see if your mom messaged? Let's be real, that's not happening. Jon Eckert: We've got bigger issues if you're doing that. Christina Crook: Yes. A podcast for another day. Yes. Jon Eckert: That's it. That's it. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: No, that's good. Well, hey, I love that. I'd love for you to talk a little bit about, you have a summer resource for families that I think that's helpful. And then you also have some other interesting work, and then we'll jump into our lightning round. Christina Crook: Great. Yeah. So, I would just encourage people to go check out jomocampus.com/summer. So, we've got a JOMO summer tips page set up. It's just a bunch of resources for families. We've got an upcoming webinar about setting your family up for screen success. We know that in the summer it can be really a free-for-all. I have kids ages 11, 13, and 15, and if we don't have a game plan for the summer, it can all fall apart very quickly. So, things like helping your kids set goals for the summer. So, we often do an incentivized reading challenge as a family for our kids over the course of the summer. So, jump in there, take a look, there's some great resources there. And yeah. Jon Eckert: You head to the UK next week, and talk a little bit about what you're doing there. Christina Crook: Yeah. So, I've been a part of a great cohort called Missional Labs, where it's a faith-based accelerator program for non-profits and for-profit organizations. And so, we'll be together for theological learning and training, both in Oxford and in London. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. Going to be connecting with Will or Ewing while I'm there, the founder of the Phone-free School Movement in the UK. So, very much excited about that, and then connecting with some Lambeth Palace folks and Church of England folks. So, yeah, it's going to be a good trip. Jon Eckert: That is great. Well, I'm glad your work is spreading and partnering. Again, at the center, we want to connect good people doing good work. And so, that's the reason why we work with you and so grateful for that. So, we move into our lightning round here, and so I almost always start with best and or worst advice you've ever given or received. So, you can take either one in whatever order you want. Christina Crook: So, best and worst for me is the same. Jon Eckert: Okay. Christina Crook: So, it was a mentor I had when I was in my 20s, and he said to me, "Just say yes. Just keep saying yes." And it was the right advice at the right time, and it was like a yes to God, just doors opening. "Yes, yes, yes." But eventually, it kind of did fall apart a little bit, because you can't actually say yes to everything, because I think there are seasons where it's just like, you just got to move and maybe it's when you're younger and those yeses all need to be strong and loud and clear, and to move through fear and towards the right things. But yeah, "just say yes" was a great piece of advice for a long time, and then I had to be much more discerning as I got older. Jon Eckert: So good. I do commencement talks. And when I do the talks, I almost always tell them to say no to good things, because if our hearts are rightly aligned with what the Lord wants us to do, then every yes is the right yes. My problem is my pride, my ego, other things get into the way of me people pleasing, and then I say yes to way too many things, and then I'm over committed. And they're all good things, but they diminish my joy and then the joy that I'm able to bring, because I become kind of a horrendous task oriented person who's only thinking about getting stuff done instead of the human beings that are the embodied souls that we work with every day. So, I think that's a great best and worst piece of advice, because I do think those yeses, when rightly aligned, are absolutely always say yes. It's just so many times I get out of alignment, so my yeses become a problem. So, best book that you've read or a project that you're working on that is book related. Christina Crook: Great. So, I do have a book. I'm rereading Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. And I've been rereading it, because I am contributing a chapter to a forthcoming Nouwen collection that's coming out from Orbis Press next year. And can I read just one line that's related to what we just talked about? Jon Eckert: Absolutely. Yeah. Christina Crook: Okay. So, Henri's writing about a friend who had just visited him, and he says, "Friendship is such a holy gift, but we give it so little attention. It is so easy to let what needs to be done take priority over what needs to be lived. Friendship is more important than the work we do together." Jon Eckert: Yeah. Christina Crook: And that felt like just such an invitation, but there is also a conviction in that for me, because like you, Jon, I can be deeply task oriented. My ego definitely wants to perform and complete tasks, and I need the discipline of prioritizing friendship. Jon Eckert: Well, yes, thank you. Christina Crook: And joy. Jon Eckert: Henri Nouwen always, what a model of how to live a rich life with what matters. But I do love, again, I'll bring up Eric Ellison again, because he's how I got connected to you. Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: He just connects friends. And so- Christina Crook: Incredible. Jon Eckert: ... he lives for and with friends because of the life that he lives that's been really vital. And we've had some great dinners together, where it has nothing to do with work, it's just, how do we get to know the immortal being that's across the table from you? And I think that's easy to lose sight of when there's so much urgent work out there, but it's really the only immortal things we interact with are the human beings that we meet with. And so, keeping that in the right perspective is vital. So, no, I am grateful for that reminder. And this may feed into the last lightning round question. What's your greatest hope as you move forward in work and life? Christina Crook: Yeah. My greatest hope is that the young people in our world are empowered and freed to live life to the full. I think it's possible. I think our shared friend, Darren Spyksma, often reminds me that God has not forgotten where we are in the culture, and technology can feel so scary, but I think we can have reasons for great hope for the life that youth are choosing to embrace, the good choices that they're making. I see it in my own kids and I see it on campuses every day. Students choosing life, and life beyond the screen is what I really believe is where we see fullness of life. Jon Eckert: That's a powerful reminder. And just as an encouragement to you, I spent the last two Tuesday nights in our foster pavilion. It's a 7,000 seat basketball arena, and it has been packed with college students primarily worshiping. One was basically a revival meeting unite, is what has gone to 17 campuses and we've had, I think, over 12,000 kids have given their lives to Christ through it. And I think over 6,000 have been baptized. And then this last week, it was a Forrest Frank concert. And you see the phones go up. The phones go up and the first one is a signal. Everybody that was dealing with anxiety, depression, anything in the last week were asked to raise their phones. And I'm not joking, that night, of the 4,500 students that I think were in there, over 4,000 phones went up. That's a good use of a phone, to say, "Hey, I need help. I want something more." Christina Crook: Yeah. Jon Eckert: And I feel like that's what JOMO calls people to. And we have a hope that goes beyond just this, what world we experience daily, and I think that's where Darren's a helpful reminder. Like, "Hey, God's much bigger than all this." And so, that's the hope we all have. So, thank you so much, Christina, for the work you're doing and for being on today. Christina Crook: Thanks for having me, Jon.  

Many of Henri Nouwen's deep spiritual insights arose from experiences of anguish. In the Inner Voice of Love, Nouwen penned spiritual imperatives for himself during the most difficult period of his life. Meant to be a deeply personal journal, friends encouraged him to offer it as a gift of consolation for those who live through the pain of broken relationships and immense loss. In this podcast conversation, Wendy speaks with Diane Marshall, a retired therapist, who was an intimate friend of Henri's. Diane and Henri shared each others' burdens during painful times, and their friendship birthed new hope. ___________ Book Discussed: The Inner Voice of Love https://amzn.to/3fq4CKN (US) https://amzn.to/37kJJOm (Canada) ___________ SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: henrinouwen.org/donate/ * SIGN UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * MORE FREE RESOURCES: henrinouwen.org/ * FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/henrinouwensociety/ TWITTER: twitter.com/nouwensociety FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/nouwensociety/ PINTEREST: www.pinterest.ca/henrinouwen/

Lessons from 'Out of Solitude' by Henri J.M. Nouwen.Henri Nouwen was a Professor of Religion and Theology at Yale University, the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Divinity. He left his academic post to join L' Arche, a community that helps people with disability.Ways to Support:Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ijmakan.substack.com/subscribe?=⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://becomingantifragile.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Art: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ikranrinmakan.com/⁠⁠Get the book: https://amzn.to/4jVNoH7

On Christmas Eve, Ukrainian families create a living Nativity scene by spreading straw across the floor and placing hay beneath the dinner tablecloth. “This gesture connects the birth of Jesus to the natural world, with the presence of the field permeating the home,” Metropolitan Borys Gudziak says. Portuguese families observe Noite da Consoada (Night of Comfort and Consolation) with a humble meal of salt cod, cabbage and potatoes. “The idea is to echo the simplicity of the day,” Ricardo da Silva, S.J., shares with Metropolitan Gudziak. “Jesus was born in this very simple setting.” These practices, Ricardo suggests in this year's final episode of “Preach,” remind us not only of Christ's simplicity but also offer a nudge for preachers: “The best thing to do is to preach simply.” [Please complete a brief survey and tell us what you love (or not) about “Preach”] Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia leads the Ukrainian Catholic community in the United States. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., he holds a doctorate in Slavic and Byzantine cultural history from Harvard University. He was the founding president and rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, from 2002 until 2012, and served Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Western Europe until 2018. His preaching is deeply influenced by his dear friend and mentor, Henri Nouwen, who was known for his emphasis on simplicity and authenticity. “People today know Henri from his writings,” he says, “but I would say his preaching was an order above because it was personal.” The metropolitan recalls what he learned from hearing hundreds of Nouwen's homilies when he was a student at Harvard. “Henri just said: ‘Keep it very simple. Use keywords many times.'” And it is this ability to communicate simply that the metropolitan shows in his Christmas Eve homily, when he uses vivid expressions like  “the clear odor of the manure” and “the bells of the cows.” By drawing on Nouwen's wisdom, the metropolitan invites us to approach the Christmas mystery with renewed awe, wonder and openness. Read the Scripture readings and full text of this week's homily Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the beautiful compilation, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life, Henri Nouwen invites us to learn to listen deeply to the voice of the Spirit. Encouraging us to encounter this voice through books, nature, people and events, Nouwen reminds us that God is ever present. In this episode of Henri's bookshelf, we speak with Sam Cooper, a pastor who has accompanied a local community of faith for 31 years and counting. Through stories of listening and obeying, Sam and Wendy celebrate a long journey of discernment that has led a community to learn to participate with God in making things right. Meadowvale Community Church: https://www.meadowvalecrc.org/ Indwell - builder of affordable housing: https://indwell.ca/ ___________ Book Discussed: Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life https://amzn.to/2NBrriT (US) https://amzn.to/2Oczt1T (CAD) Spiritual Direction https://amzn.to/389dTEI (US) https://amzn.to/2Zf9gGA (CAD) Spiritual Formation https://amzn.to/2YCNETY (US) https://amzn.to/2COPVTM (CAD) The Wounded Healer https://amzn.to/2AGOrKz (US) https://amzn.to/3hdDkcr (CAD) ___________ SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: henrinouwen.org/donate/ * SIGN UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * MORE FREE RESOURCES: henrinouwen.org/ * FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/henrinouwensociety/ TWITTER: twitter.com/nouwensociety FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/nouwensociety/ PINTEREST: www.pinterest.ca/henrinouwen/

DateNovember 3, 2024SynopsisIn this sermon, we explore the life of Henri Nouwen—Catholic priest, prolific author, and wounded healer—whose lifelong struggle with feeling worthy of love led him to discover God's grace in unexpected places. Through Nouwen's journey from prestigious academic positions to living among those with disabilities at L'Arche, we learn that our wounds aren't liabilities but pathways to healing, and that like trapeze artists, we're all called to trust in the divine Catcher who promises to hold us. This message will especially resonate with anyone who has ever felt like an impostor, struggled with feeling worthy of love, or longed to be enough—inviting us to consider how our own wounds might become sources of healing for others, just as Nouwen taught us that "when our wounds cease to be a source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers."ReferencesScripture: Matthew 3:13–17; Hebrews 12:1–2About The Local ChurchFor more information about The Local Church, visit our website. We're also posting good stuff on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram, too. Feedback? Questions? Comments? We'd love to hear it. Email Brent at brent@thelocalchurchpbo.org.To invest in what God's doing through The Local Church and help support these podcasting efforts and this movement of God's love, give online here.

The last manuscript of Henri J.M. Nouwen, left unfinished at his sudden death in 1996, recounts his transformative friendship with a traveling trapeze troupe, the Flying Rodleighs. Nouwen thought his trapeze story could become his most important book. Author Carolyn Whitney-Brown, Henri's colleague and friend, was invited to take the unpublished material and offer it to readers as the final metaphor to have captivated Henri Nouwen's spiritual imagination. Readers will discover Henri to be a spiritual risk-taker always pursuing deeper communion with God. And somewhere in the flying and catching and even falling, Henri found access to a more embodied and liberating life. Carolyn Whitney-Brown is a Canadian writer, artist, and university teacher who earned a PhD in English literature. She knew Henri Nouwen well when she and her family lived in the L'Arche Daybreak community from 1990 until Nouwen's death in 1996. She lives on Vancouver Island. https://writersunion.ca/member/Carolyn-Whitney-Brown ___________ Book Discussed: Flying, Falling, Catching: An Unlikely Story of Finding Freedom https://amzn.to/3UUPJ9c (US) https://amzn.to/3RuZszU (Canada) ___________ SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: henrinouwen.org/donate/ * SIGN UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * MORE FREE RESOURCES: henrinouwen.org/ * FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/henrinouwensociety/ TWITTER: twitter.com/nouwensociety FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/nouwensociety/ PINTEREST: www.pinterest.ca/henrinouwen/

Chris Maxwell's 12th book comes out October 1st. Each of the twelve chapters in the book, “Things We've Handed Down: Twelve Letters I Leave for You,” is written as a letter to a reader. The chapter titles are all book titles from books which have impacted Chris' life. He hopes to hand down to the next generation key life principles that he learned from the books. “Disappointment with God” by former Next Step guest Philip Yancey, “Wounds Are Where Light Enters” by Walter Wangerin Jr., “The Wounded Healer” by Henri J.M. Nouwen, “Life is Mostly Edges” by Calvin Miller, “Surprised by Joy” by C. S. Lewis, and “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” by Eugene Peterson are just some of the chapters in this book.As a leader and a learner, what books have impacted your life? What lessons have you learned that you can “hand down” to others? How have disappointments and wounds brought you closer to God instead of farther from Him? How can we lead better by displaying love, acceptance, and forgiveness? Listen to the conversation. Pick up a copy of “Things We've Handed Down” and read it. Get copies for those you lead. Be sure you receive what's handed down to you and that you hand down God's love to others.Amazon: http://bit.ly/cmaxmanWebsite:chrismaxwell.me  Facebook: facebook.com/PauseWithChrisMaxwellTwitter:@CMaxManInstagram: CMaxMan

Jonas was al eerder in Japan geweest, maar was er nog lang niet klaar mee. Gewapend met de ervaringen van de vorige keer, jarenlange research voor de podcast en een gezonde liefde voor de Japanse keuken, trok de familie Nouwen drie weken door het land van de rijzende zon.Jonas vertelt Jeroen en de luisteraars alles over de reis waar hij ‘niet een keer slecht heeft gegeten.' Over zespersoonsrestaurantjes waar de eigenaar enthousiast uitlegt hoe je sushi hoort te eten. Over een restaurant waar Jonas en zijn familie in een aparte kamer werden gezet. En over het de beste Katsu Sando die hij ooit had gegeten, gefrituurd in reuzel.Kortom een dik uur verhalen over heerlijk eten, bijzondere gebruiken en cultuurverschillen. Daarbij een glas bijzondere sake uit een schitterende fles. Voor De Brigade vertelt Jonas in het supplement hoe je dat doet, op eigen houtje door Japan reizen. Met praktische tips over wel of niet reserveren, de rol van de convenience store en kamers zo klein dat je koffer op de gang staat.Wat Schaft de Podcast Huiswijnen boxAls klap op de vuurpijl introduceren we de Wat Schaft De Podcast huiswijnen. Wij hebben samen met sommelier van het jaar ‘24 Lukas Wiegman zes heerlijke wijnen uitgezocht bij onze nieuwe partner Wijnbeurs.nl. Daar vertellen we over en die kan je natuurlijk ook bestellen op www.wijnbeurs.nl/watschaftdepodcast Live opname op 29 septemberAls je hierna nog geen genoeg van ons hebt, dan kan je ons in levende lijve ontmoeten op 29 september bij Chateau Amsterdam tijdens de live opname www.watschaftdepodcast.com/liveShownotesBij elke aflevering maken we uitgebreide shownotes, met informatie uit de podcast en links naar recepten. De shownotes staan op: watschaftdepodcast.com.Word lid van de BrigadeAls lid van De Brigade krijg je een advertentievrije podcast met exclusieve content, toegang tot onze online kookclub, kortingen, winacties en steun je de podcast. Word lid via: petjeaf.com/watschaftdepodcast.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we explore the popularity of Henri Nouwen among evangelicals. Described by Christianity Today as "one of the world's greatest spiritual writers," Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest, writer, theologian, professor, psychologist, spiritual director, and activist. A survey by Christian Century revealed that Nouwen's work is a top choice for both Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant clergy. Join us as we discuss whether Nouwen should be promoted in evangelical institutions, seminaries, and churches as a model of evangelical spirituality.Support the Show.

Bucket lists are tricky. They can help explore dreams and desires to fulfill in a lifetime. They can also become a list of to-dos before death, shaping expectations about the future. We talk about these lists in the face of limited time, and celebrate the journey of becoming.Read Trudy and Lisa's Bios: CroneCast.caRead this show's blog at CroneCast.ca for in-depth thoughts on topics covered in this episode.Share your questions and comments at https://cronecast.ca/contact.  We want to hear from you about all things crone.--Chapters--(00:00) - Intro (00:35) - Time (07:27) - Opportunity (10:36) - Self Acceptance (15:14) - Living Ahead (19:16) - Doing Your Best (22:52) - Integrity (28:44) - Becoming (32:15) - Close --References--    Reiner, R. (2007). The Bucket List [Film]. Warner Bros. Zadan/Meron Productions. Two Ton Films. Castle Rock Entertainment. Storyline Entertainment.Ferguson, Melanie. “The Case For Bucket Lists: Busting Myths and Changing Mindsets” [Blog Post]. postcardsandplaces.com. January 4, 2024.Ufuoma, Jessica. “How Ditching My Bucket List Has Helped Me Travel More” [Blog Post]. theufuoma.com. November 17, 2017.Ware, Bronnie. (2011) The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departed.” BalboaPress. Bloomington, IN.Nouwen, Henri J.M. (1992) The Return Of The Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming. Doubleday. New York, NY.--Credits—Hosted by Trudy Callaghan and Lisa AustinProduced by Odvod Media.Audio Engineering by Steve Glen.Original music by Darrin Hagen. 

Kencan Dengan Tuhan - Rabu, 12 Juni 2024 Bacaan: "Apa yang telah kami lihat dan yang telah kami dengar itu, kami beritakan kepada kamu juga, supaya kamu pun beroleh persekutuan dengan kami. Dan persekutuan kami adalah persekutuan dengan Bapa dan dengan Anak-Nya, Yesus Kristus." (1 Yohanes 1:3) Renungan: Henri Nouwen mempunyai kerinduan yang sangat dalam supaya orang-orang bisa mengenal Yesus. Di mana pun berada, dia berusaha menyampaikan kabar baik kepada orang yang dilihatnya supaya mereka bersedia menerima kabar baik tersebut. Suatu kali, di sela-sela konferensi yang membahas tentang seni dan kehidupan rohani, Nouwen menemui seorang wanita yang berkata bahwa dia seringkali berselisih dengan pejabat gerejanya karenakebijakan-kebijakan yang mereka ambil. Nouwen berkata kepada wanita tersebut, "Semua itu adalah selingan. Saya tidak bermaksud meremehkan komplainmu. Tetapi, itu bukan poin yang utama. Hal yang terpenting adalah persoalan hubunganmu dengan Yesus. Meskipun Dia tidak kelihatan dan tangan kita tidak bisa menyentuh-Nya, itu tidak berarti Dia nun jauh di sana. Sebagai gambarannya adalah listrik. Listrik tidak kelihatan, tetapi itu adalah sumber dari tenaga yang luar biasa. Demikian juga dengan Yesus. Kita dapat memelihara hubungan kita dengan Dia di dalam doa, membaca firman-Nya dan dalam bimbingan Roh Kudus." Nouwen menantang wanita tersebut dengan sebuah nasihat, "Sediakan waktu lima menit setiap hari selama dua minggu dalam sebuah saat teduh dan katakan bahwa engkau rindu akan kehadiran-Nya. Dan kemudian datang dan katakan kepada saya hasilnya." Yohanes pun rindu agar bukan hanya dia yang memiliki hubungan dengan Yesus, tetapi orang lain juga. "Apa yang telah kami lihat dan yang telah kami dengar itu, kami beritakan kepada kamu juga, supaya kamu pun beroleh persekutuan dengan kami. Dan persekutuan kami adalah persekutuan dengan Bapa dan dengan Anak Nya, Yesus Kristus." Sebagai pengikut Yesus, kita perlu menyadari bahwa hubungan dengan Yesus adalah sebuah panggilan dari Allah, seperti kata Paulus, "Allah, yang memanggil kamu kepada persekutuan dengan Anak-Nya Yesus Kristus, Tuhan kita, adalah setia."(1 Kor 1:9). Dengan demikian kita akan menghargai hubungan tersebut dan akan berusaha untuk memeliharanya. Mungkin kita sibuk dengan urusan pekerjaan, bisnis atau urusan hubungan kemasyarakatan, bahkan sibuk untuk mengurusi keluarga dan pelayanan. Tetapi, itu tidak dapat menjadi alasan bagi kita untuk tidak memelihara hubungan dengan Yesus. Mari kita mengambil waktu sejenak setiap hari untuk bersama-sama dengan Yesus. Bacalah firman-Nya dan pujilah Dia. Rasakan kehadiran-Nya dan nikmati kehangatan kasih-Nya, niscaya kita akan menjadi orang percaya yang teguh, penuh sukacita serta siap membangun hubungan dengan sesama. Tuhan Yesus memberkati. Doa: Tuhan Yesus, terima kasih karena Engkau sudah memanggilku untuk memiliki hubungan dengan-Mu. Berilah aku kekuatan agar aku bisa tetap memeliharanya. Amin. (Dod).

In this week's episode, we welcome Brya Hanan, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, to share how we can learn to engage as an adult with the young parts of ourselves. Brya shares her story, the trauma she experienced as a child, and how it affected not only her self-perception but also how she related to others. She reflects on her healing journey and shares practical ways you can begin your healing journey. We also chat about how our unmet needs as a child can affect us as adults, how to have compassion for ourselves in our brokenness, and why healing ourselves allows us to love those around us much more fully.    Heather's One Thing - Her parents Sister Miriam's One Thing - Lentil Curry and Naan Bread  Michelle's One Thing - Her husband, Chris, and his loving support Brya's One Thing - Barre Classes!   Other Resources Mentioned:  Buy Brya's book here Check out Brya's website and Instagram Restore the Glory Podcast Episode 99: Parts Work with Brya Hanan   Journal Questions: Where do I sense deep divides within myself? How do I care for others as a way of avoiding care for myself? What would it look like for me to befriend my inner child? What are my defense mechanisms? Is it time to seek out therapy?   Discussion Questions: What “templates” of wounds and experiences do you find yourself living through? In your healing journey, when have you experienced things getting worse before they got better? What made the change for the better? What does your inner child need to hear today? When do you feel dysregulated? When do you feel well-regulated?   Quotes to Ponder: “Remember, you are held safe. You are loved. You are protected. You are in communion with God and with those whom God has sent you. What is of God will last. It belongs to the eternal life. Choose it, and it will be yours.” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love)   “The history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman's motherhood.” (Saint Pope JPII)   Scripture for Lectio:   A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?' ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5: 24- 34)   Sponsor - Holy Confident Birth: Are you an expectant mama who's dreaming of a natural birth experience that feels like an act of worship, leaves you feeling empowered in your motherhood, and even brings you closer to Christ? Maybe you've been searching high and low for a resource that will help you get there AND that aligns with your Catholic values, but it just didn't seem to exist! If you want to feel EQUIPPED to knock your birth out of the park, EMPOWERED in your ability to make informed decisions, and EXCITED for the Spirit-led, fear-free birth you've been dreaming of, The Holy Confident Birth Course might be just the solution you've been looking for. Inside this course, you'll find eight modules comprised of video lessons and handouts,where you'll learn about the labor and birth process, building the perfect team, managing your options and interventions, advocating for yourself during labor and so much more!  If you want to take the next step towards a birth you'll love, learn more at www.holyconfidentbirth.com/birthcourse and use code ABIDE for an extra $49 off at checkout.

Lessons from 'Out of Solitude' by Henri J.M. Nouwen. Henri Nouwen was a Professor of Religion and Theology at Yale University, the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Divinity. He left his academic post to join L' Arche, a community that helps people with disability. - Out of Solitude: USA - https://amzn.to/3VXb2tC CA - https://amzn.to/445ig0I The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarah: USA - https://amzn.to/3vUzfGf CA - https://amzn.to/3W1EO0b Meditation by Marcus Aurelius USA - https://amzn.to/3UhKRN5 CA - https://amzn.to/3QoXJi7 - Social & Website Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ijmakan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ijmakan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://becomingantifragile.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ijmakan.substack.com - 00:00 - Excerpt from ‘Out of Solitude' 05:00 - Fear of the other is the root of all our problems 06:16 - Who is Henri Nouwen? 10:31 - How solitude leads to care 12:00 - Find your lonely place 14:45 - Charity as gratitude vs. Charity for praise 16:40 - Sitting in silence 18:20 - The wise know themself that they don't require affirmations from others 26:34 - Difference between Isolation and Solitude 31:00 - Darkness meditation 32:30 - Tao's story of uselessness and why it's ultimately the most useful 39:00 - What does it mean to be a good friend? 43:15 - To care means to live in the present 50:10 - Challenge

This morning we analyze the impact of receiving and giving, quoting Henri J.M. Nouwen, and Baasl HaTurim on the beginning of this week's Torah portion, Terumah. We demonstrate the benefit of the opportunity to give with a great story from Rabbi Yissachar Frand. Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship. Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/ Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO Please contact Rabbi Whitman (rabbi@adath.ca) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

In this week's episode, we reflect on the role both joy and sorrow simultaneously play in our lives. We chat about how pressing into grief allows us to more fully experience joy, and how when we try to numb ourselves to the sorrow we also numb ourselves to the experience of joy. We also talk about the importance of naming disappointments, intentionally maturing in our faith, and what we have personally learned while grieving the loss of a parent. When we learn to suffer well and meet God in the midst of our sufferings, we can reach a deep joy we never thought possible.    Heather's One Thing - Attending and speaking at SEEK ‘24.  Watch my session here. Sister Miriam's One Thing - Therapist's Conference with the JPII Healing Center Michelle's One Thing - Nick Sabn Retiring From College Football    Announcement: We are excited to announce that our Lenten book study will be: A Time of Renewal: Daily Reflections for the Lenten Season by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. Visit our website for more information!   Journal Questions: What paradoxes am I called to live in right now? How can I bring the Lord into my disappointments? Am I more prone to pushing my emotions aside or letting my emotions rule my life (emotional gluttony)? In seasons of grief, who are the people who have been my midwives and accompanied me through those seasons?   Discussion Questions: What disappointments have you experienced this past year? Is it hard for you to be honest with God about those disappointments? What is God redeeming and restoring in your life? In a current disappointment or heartbreak you are feeling, what gratitude are you experiencing alongside it? What gifts of daily bread is the Lord providing for you in this season?   Quote to Ponder: “Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our lives. It seems that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence we sense a tinge of sadness. In every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations. In every success, there is the fear of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace, there is loneliness. In every friendship, distance. And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge of surrounding darkness . . . But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life)   Scripture for Lectio:  He turns my mourning into dancing. You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. (Psalm 30:11-12)   Sponsor - Pilgrimage to Beauty: Pilgrimage to Beauty (www.pilgrimagetobeauty.com/abidingtogether) creates transformative experiences of true rest and retreat, for couples or individuals wired for adventure. Whether you're an adventurer or a contemplative, Pilgrimage to Beauty invites you to Guatemala July 24-31, 2024 for a unique encounter with Blessed Stanley Rother in the Mayan village he served and died for only 43 years ago. Tens of thousands of pilgrims have visited the newly opened Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City, but very few have had the experience of praying and serving in Santiago, the village where his heart resides and his mission lives on. We have already had a number of Abiding Together listeners go on this pilgrimage and describe it as one of the most transformational trips of their lives. Our very good friends Ennie and Cana Hickman and Emily Blasdell will guide you to the breathtaking shores of Lake Atitlan, feed you delicious local cuisine, and accompany you on this once in a lifetime encounter with God and His saint.  Visit PilgrimageToBeauty.com/abidingtogether to find out all the special perks for our Abiding Together listeners, including $500 off of your registration!

What is the purpose of solitude? Are solitude and isolation different? What are you giving and receiving from community? Click to purchase my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Calendar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. This season, I'm exploring the book "Called to Community," edited and compiled by Charles E. Moore. Throughout this year-long study, I will work through what it means to live intentionally with others. The book covers a wide range of topics, authors, and ideas, that exemplify the diversity of Christian communities. Please leave a positive review wherever you listen or share your favourite episode with a friend. If you have any comments or questions, email me at masonunrauphoto@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, and you can view my other ventures below. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.masonunrau.com⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/peopleandplace/message

We are thrilled to kick off the New Year with part 2 of an intimate interview between Henri Nouwen and Brian Stiller. In 1995, Brian, host of the weekly Cross Currents television show, conducted an exclusive interview with Henri at his L'Arche Daybreak home. In this rare uncut video, Nouwen discusses hope, prayer, and finding joy amid suffering in this episode of Henri Nouwen, Now & Then. * WATCH PART 2 INTERVIEW: https://youtu.be/U04GuJSz14k * WATCH PART 1 INTERVIEW: https://youtu.be/FnFE2aYNfAc * EPISODE PAGE: https://henrinouwen.org/listen/brian-stiller-and-henri-nouwen-2/ * INTERVIEW USED WITH PERMISSION by Karen Pascal, Windborne Productions * LISTEN on iTUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/henri-nouwen-now-then-podcast-brian-stiller-henri-nouwen/id1468489942?i=1000640147311 * LISTEN on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/26qxQS2lKBTLSbEnReirhm * TO DONATE & SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: https://henrinouwen.org/donate/ * SIGN UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: https://henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * WATCH DOCUMENTARY "Journey of the Heart: The Life of Henri Nouwen": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U8M1gx5Rk4&t=12s * MORE FREE RESOURCES: https://henrinouwen.org/ * READ HENRI NOUWEN BOOKS: henrinouwen.org/read/ * FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/henrinouwensociety/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/nouwensociety FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/nouwensociety/ PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.ca/henrinouwen/ * LISTEN on iTUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/henri-nouwen-now-then-podcast-sharon-garlough-brown/id1468489942?i=1000634128698 * LISTEN on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5u9rLLBjRejoXSDmWFDJOM

In today's episode, Jeff and Susan get to interview Carolyn Whitney-Brown about her recent book, "Flying, Falling, Catching." Carolyn was good friends with the late Henri Nouwen, a famed spiritual writer, speaker, priest, and university professor. Her book–framed by the true story of Nouwen being rescued out a hotel window during his first heart attack–incorporates his unpublished writings about his friendship with a traveling trapeze group and gives a glimpse of Nouwen as a whole person. Enjoy the episode!

In 1976, when he was forty-four years old, Henri Nouwen co-authored a book entitled Aging: The Fulfillment of Life. One of Nouwen's colleagues who worked in the field of gerontology extolled the book as the best he had read on aging. Nouwen responded, "I know nothing about aging." Because he was only forty-four at the time his answer was probably correct. But if you are a baby boomer, someone born between 1946 and 1964, you now know something about aging!In 1968 we baby boomers first started graduating from college. We were, are, and will continue to be people asking questions, people questing for the truth and the meaning of life just as they were during their college years and the social, political, and institutional upheavals of the 1960s. Now we face a new round of upheavals and new questions occasioned by our aging. For example,Are you wondering what is to come as you notice changes in your physical health?Are you nearing the end of your career and beginning to ask yourself "Who am I, really?" and "What next?"Are your priorities changing as you experience the loss of family, friends, and peers?At the same time:Are you experiencing greater freedom to live as your responsibilities and demands subside?Are you looking forward to creating a new life thanks to the wisdom of your lived experience?Are the questions of life's meaning and purpose becoming more important?We cannot dodge the realities or the questions these upheavals of aging provoke and evoke. If we try to evade them, there are just too many reminders that we are aging. There is no denying the reality that we are aging and that we have lived more years of our lives than remain to be lived.What can we do and how can we live fully in the face of such profound and sometimes frightening realities? We can re-envision our aging and seek the opportunities for growth that aging holds for us.In this program, we will focus on the spiritual dimension of our life's journey. We will explore some of the spiritual opportunities and paths that are present in our aging.About Bob Weber:Recipient of the American Society on Aging's 2014 Religion, Spirituality, and Aging Award, Robert L. Weber, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Psychology, part-time at Harvard Medical School and a former Jesuit. He also serves as a Massachusetts General Hospital's Department of Psychiatry faculty member. Bob has had a long-standing interest in the integration of psychology and spirituality. This interest is born of his profession as a clinical psychologist and his lifelong commitment to personal spiritual development as both a lay Catholic and former Jesuit. He has been working to integrate a third dimension, aging. This new initiative is not just academically or intellectually motivated. As a first-year "baby boomer" himself (Bob was born in 1946), he has become increasingly aware of aging, both professionally and personally.At his private practice, located in Cambridge, MA, he conducts psycho-spiritual issues groups. Bob also leads seminars, days of reflection, and retreats in a variety of settings that integrate aging, spirituality, and mental health. Get in touch with Bob Weber:Buy Bob's Book:  https://revolutionizeretirement.com/spirituality DownloadWhat to do next: Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts. Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

What are the responsibilities of Leaders and Followers? What are leaders called to? Click to purchase my ⁠Calendar⁠ or ⁠Book⁠. This season, I'm exploring the book "Called to Community," edited and compiled by Charles E. Moore. Throughout this year-long study, I will work through what it means to live intentionally with others. The book covers a wide range of topics, authors, and ideas, that exemplify the diversity of Christian communities. Please leave a positive review wherever you listen or share your favourite episode with a friend. If you have any comments or questions, email me at masonunrauphoto@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, and you can view my other ventures below. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.masonunrau.com⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/peopleandplace/message

Credits: All songs and texts used with permission Opening Prayer: Written by Christine Valters Paintner Opening Song: Weep with Me by Deirdre Ní Chinneíde from the album The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors First Reading: Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith HarperOne, 1997 (entry for August 29) Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living Psalm Version: Tune: The Lament of the Three Marys/Coaineadh na dTrí Muire, Words: Kiran Young Wimberly © 2018, from the album Celtic Psalms: Rest in the Shelter Second Reading: Jeremiah 31:15 (NRSV) Prayers of Concern: Written by Claudia Love Mair Sung Response: Words by Abbey Dream Team. Music by Betsey Beckman. Arranged and performed by Alexa Sunshine Rose and Simon de Voil © 2023 Closing Song: We Remember Them by Trish Bruxvoort Colligan from the album The Love of Thousands: Singing with Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Closing Blessing: Written by Christine Valters Paintner to companion her book The Love of Thousands : How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness (used with permission from Ave Maria Press) Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on CDs in the Abbey of the Arts collection. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding DVD (each album has a DVD companion). Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.

Are we all called to Christian community? What does it mean to hear God's Call? This season, I'm exploring the book "Called to Community," edited and compiled by Charles E. Moore. Throughout this year-long study, I will work through what it means to live intentionally with others. The book covers a wide range of topics, authors, and ideas, that exemplify the diversity of Christian communities. Click the link if you want to purchase ⁠⁠"Called to Community."⁠⁠⁠ Please leave a positive review wherever you listen or share your favourite episode with a friend. If you have any comments or questions, email me at masonunrauphoto@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, and you can view my other ventures below. ⁠⁠http://www.masonunrau.com⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/peopleandplace/message

Hi Friends. Matt Whitney here. I thought for the podcast I would do a reading of a reflection I wrote for our SDI Listen publication, which comes out quarterly. It's about something Henri Nouwen wrote in his book The Inner Voice of Love. I hope you enjoy the reading, and the written reflection is below. SDI has thousands of spiritual directors, companions, guides, and teachers who are available to work with you, listen to you, and accompany you on your spiritual journey. Find one to work with today at sdicompanions.org. --- I recently took a short backpacking trip in the North Cascades of Washington State. I like to have an author accompany me while sipping my instant coffee in the morning or curling up in my sleeping bag at night. This trip, I brought with me Henri Nouwen's The Inner Voice of Love, described on the back cover as his “secret journal” – written during a period of intense doubt, low self-esteem, anguish, and despair. Nouwen writes with great clarity and purpose, and I was moved reading his intimate sharing. In one entry, he writes of our need to share our struggles, pain, and anguish with others, so that need may be affirmed and acknowledged. Indeed, Nouwen continues, our suffering can be of service to others, when shared judiciously, and with caution. Nouwen says, “You will always need people who do not need you but who can receive you and give you back to yourself.” I was struck – what a beautiful description of spiritual companionship, encapsulating the essence, calling, and profound gifts of spiritual companionship! I'm in my sixth year working for SDI. During this time, I've had countless conversations with folks about our work as spiritual directors and companions. Sometimes these discussions are easy, but more often context is necessary for those unfamiliar with our modalities. So, I describe our practices of deep listening, contemplation, and compassionate service, in service to helping others on their own unique spiritual journeys. These approaches help us all to recall and behold our deep, and innate, connection with God, The Divine, The Universe, or however we might each name The Ground of All Being. Let's contemplate this together – how are each of us received by someone “who does not need us,” and  who “gives us back to ourselves?” What does it mean that someone needs nothing from us? Let's start with the fact that we have many relationships in life, with varying degrees of responsibilities and obligations. As a partner and a parent, I have a responsibility to be loving and caring to my spouse, and my son. If we are friends, it's important that we find fun things to do together, as well as help each other out in our struggles, or even with more mundane tasks such as moving or working on a house project. Professional colleagues pool their efforts in common causes and purposes. And so on.  All of these relationships can blossom as we get to know one another, and become more intimate over time. Perhaps eventually to the point of finding safety and comfort in sharing our spirituality with each other. After all, mutuality and reciprocity are the most precious gifts of our relationships. We give as much as we get.     One question I often hear in response to my own descriptions of a spiritual companion is: “why can't that person just be an intimate partner, or a good friend?” To which I respond, “On occasion, they can be!” But what I have found, and I imagine you may have as well, is that our sufferings and longings are too intimate, too delicate, and too easily misunderstood by even our partners and closest friends. Within us may be truths so hidden that we don't know how to properly speak of them. This can become problematic if we are tempted to overshare, as it may confuse or even become a burden to those whom we live and work with. As it turns out, our colleagues, friends, and partners actually need quite a bit from us – as does every good relationship. This includes the inevitable need to be selective, and even guarded, in sharing our most intimate spiritual selves. Conversely, though a partner or friend might mean well, they are likely not attuned to the deep listening that would be most helpful to us. They may want to correct us, solve our problems, and make us feel better. The intentions are good, but these responses can be awkward, even harmful, to understanding our unique journeys. You will always need people who do not need you but who can receive you and give you back to yourself. - Henri Nouwen Illustrated by Matt Whitney This is what Nouwen means by “need.” Our partners need us to be loving, contributing partners. Our colleagues need us to be productive and helpful. Our friends need us to be…friends. They also need us to be complete and caring people in their lives. On the other hand, a spiritual companion doesn't need us at all in these ways. They don't require our service or assistance. When I meet with mine, I don't need to dress nicely, or pretend that I'm in a good mood. I arrive just as I am, with all my “baggage.” This is a great gift and a huge relief! Nouwen adds that a spiritual companion “gives us back to ourselves.” As we all notice the tangles of our busy lives, and the anxieties and fears we carry, we eventually realize there are things deep within us that yearn and long in ways we may not be able to properly name. A spiritual companion can give us uninhibited safe space to untangle and declutter the surface of our lives, such that the depths within us can be excavated. Much like clearing weeds from a garden, these depths are given air to breathe and light to reveal.   A spiritual companion can give us uninhibited safe space to untangle and declutter the surface of our lives, such that the depths within us can be excavated. Much like clearing weeds from a garden, these depths are given air to breathe and light to reveal.   Many of the world's spiritual traditions speak of the True Self. This True Self is our Spiritual Essence, the Child of God, Transcendent Awareness, the Eternal Self, The Ground of Our Being. This depth is you – the real You that spiritual companionship gives back to us! There is much work we must all do to discover our True Nature: learning to integrate our pain, understanding our suffering, and alchemizing these into the living wisdom that weaves itself through all of us eternally. Though my descriptions of spiritual companionship change depending on the conversation, I always say: “Everyone should work with a spiritual companion.” This includes you! If spiritual companionship is not part of your routine of care, I encourage you to check out our Find a Spiritual Companion Directory. Spend some time researching potential Spiritual Directors, Companions, and Guides to work with, and connect with a few. They are the kindest folks I know and typically offer free introductory sessions if you ask.   And may you find a person who needs nothing from you, but can receive you, and give you back to yourself.   ---   Support for SDI Encounters comes from THE CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, WHICH INVITES YOU TO AN ONLINE BIOSPIRITUAL FOCUSING BOOK STUDY. THE GROUP WILL MEET 7 WEDNESDAY EVENINGS, 6:30-8 PM PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME, STARTING SEPTEMBER 13. GO TO WWW.THECSD.ORG FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER. THE CSD LOOKS FORWARD TO MEETING YOU ON ZOOM!

Our guest today is Rachelle Starr, founder of Scarlet Hope. At 21, Rachelle felt God calling her to minister to women trapped working in strip clubs in her city of Louisville, KY. Today, she shares some of the stories she's witnessed over 16 years of building relationships through good food and introducing these women to the God who sees and loves them. Scarlet Hope is now in many major cities around the nation, working to bring the hope of the Gospel to places that are often overlooked.    Rachelle's Website Scarlet Hope  Outrageous Obedience: Answering God's Call to Shine in the Darkest Places by Rachelle Starr  Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times by John Eldredge  Discernment by Henri J.M. Nouwen  The Way of the Heart by Henri J.M. Nouwen  Tramp for the Lord by Corrie Ten Boom  S3 27: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Reflecting on Three Years of the Strong Women Podcast With Erin Kunkle     In the fight against suicide, the Church has a vital role to play, but what does that look like in action? Our next Lighthouse Voices event on September 5 will help you answer that question. Our featured speaker is Dr. Matthew Sleeth, author of Hope Always: How to Be a Force for Life in a Culture of Suicide. Dr. Sleeth will help us understand the current suicide epidemic and share how Christians can fight against it and care for those who are struggling. This event will be offered both in-person and online, and you can register now at colsoncenter.org/lighthousevoices.  To help you live the Truth in a “my truth” world, we want to send you a copy of Alisa Childers' latest book, Live Your Truth and Other Lies. Request your copy by giving a gift of any amount to the Colson Center in August at colsoncenter.org/swchildersresource.  The Strong Women Podcast is a product of the Colson Center which equips Christians to live out their faith with clarity, confidence, and courage in this cultural moment. Through commentaries, podcasts, videos, and more, we help Christians better understand what's happening in the world, and champion what is true and good wherever God has called them.  Learn more about the Colson Center here: https://www.colsoncenter.org/   Visit our website and sign up for our email list so that you can stay up to date on what we are doing here and also receive our monthly book list: https://www.colsoncenter.org/strong-women  Join Strong Women on Social Media:   https://www.facebook.com/StrongWomenCC  https://www.facebook.com/groups/strongwomencommunitycc/  https://www.instagram.com/strongwomencc/ 

In this episode, Madeline chats with David Paiz, an aerospace engineer and her cousin-in-law. During their conversation, they discuss his childhood in Guatemala and California, his undergrad at Embry-Riddle in aerospace engineering, his agnostic phase, his and his wife Kelly's journey back to Catholicism, the different engineering jobs he's had, the difference between different engineering jobs, his favorite parts of Guatemalan culture, why he moved back to the US, his love for his current parish community, Exodus 90 and his fruit from it, the importance of fraternity and community, St. Joseph the Worker and what holy work is, impactful books, the importance of silence, his love of the rosary, and so much more!During the course of their conversation, they make many references which you can explore. Some of these references include Exodus 90, The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henry J. M. Nouwen, The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn, The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarah,  episode 16 of this podcast.Feel free to like, subscribe, and share the episode! Follow us on Instagram! @sbltfpodcastDon't forget to go out there, and be a light to this world!

In this episode of Henri Nouwen, Now & Then, CEO of Prison Fellowship Canada, Stacey Campbell, joins Karen Pascal for a visionary conversation about their collaboration to bring Father to the Fatherless into prisons and institutions across Canada. Based on Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal Son, Karen and Stacey share their excitement about the potential this new initiative has to transform lives all across the world! * EPISODE PAGE: https://henrinouwen.org/listen/stacey-campbell/ * FATHER TO THE FATHERLESS initiative: https://henrinouwen.org/father-to-the-fatherless/ To PURCHASE "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen Amazon USA: amzn.to/3z5WDya Amazon Canada: amzn.to/3vexKiN ___________________________ * TO DONATE & SUPPORT THE PODCAST: https://henrinouwen.org/donate/ * SIGN UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: https://henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * LISTEN ON iTUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/henri-nouwen-now-then-podcast-stacey-campbell-father/id1468489942?i=1000618952178 * LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZKE3AE5IXFkFMQ4oCQN0L * WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/yVAjeGhyBuA

In this episode, Andrew takes a break from his regular interview series to share episode 4 of Petrus's new podcast, Reflections on Nouwen's “A Spirituality of Fundraising”. The show's host, Justin DeMoss of Your Philanthropic Advisor, interviews Fr. Matt Lowry from Holy Trinity Catholic Newman Center at Northern Arizona University. The two reflect on Chapter 4 of Nouwen's book, “People Who Are Rich”.

In this meaningful episode, we explore the concept of the 'Wounded Healer' as described by spiritual guides Henri Nouwen and Brennan Manning.  Drawing on Nouwen's transformative idea that our deepest wounds could be a source of healing for ourselves and others, we delve into how struggles can lead to a profound understanding of our shared humanity. Jess dives in to how this work has changed her. That we are, in our totality, a gift. We all bring our unique tapestry of experiences to bear on the lives of others. Our purposeful work emerges not despite the pain but because of it. It motivated Jess to break the silence, to confront and share the acute anguish her family was and is still experiencing as we grappled with the terrifying fear of losing our child.  Jess shares that she used to believe that she needed to wait until the dust had settled, until her trials had found resolution and she could tie it all up with a neat bow, before sharing how these experiences impacted her and, indeed, those around her. But that's the crux of the matter. What if the resolution we yearn for never comes to pass in the way we envisage? We also reflect on the poignant words of Rainer Maria Rilke, reminding us that everyone's journey includes challenges and sorrow. Finally, we discuss the power of vulnerability and the courage it takes to turn our darkness into light, not only for our healing but also as a beacon for others. Join us on this journey of self-discovery and shared healing.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 8 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with Sarah Rose.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 7 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with Josephine Everly.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 6 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with Sean DuPre.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 4 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with Fr. Matt Lowry.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 5 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with Andrew Robison.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 3 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with Catholic development professional Chris Massaro.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 2 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with longtime Catholic development professional Mike Perkins.

Host Justin DeMoss discusses chapter 1 of Henri Nouwen's "A Spirituality of Fundraising," and how it applies to fundraisers today, with longtime Catholic development professional Peter de Keratry.

Welcome to Season Four! We're excited to share meaningful conversations about great books and maybe a few great movies, too. :) What do great books have to do with living loved instead of afraid? That's a good question. This season is all about building relationships with great authors and letting the ideas in books love us well. That means great books are good FOR US, not simply good. Powerful ideas are nutritious food for the mind, and abiding in them long enough to have a conversation is transformational. The short way to answer that question is that great books offer us love because they meet our real needs for wisdom, direction, correction, and inspiration. So Season Four offers to love you well by inviting you to let love meet your need to be inspired with us. We may even offer a bit of wisdom, too. This episode is a conversation about The Return of the Prodigal Son - A Story of Homecoming by Henri J. M. Nouwen. Listen in as we tell how a copy of Rembrandt's famous painting found a prominent place in our home and we share a few of our favorite quotes from the book. Email us* with your takeaways from this episode and linger in these ideas that inspired us -  Love isn't love if you have to earn it. Many of us have lived a relationship as hired servants with God and today is a great day to come home as His child. Yesterday doesn't predict tomorrow when we let love happen in our relationships today.  Doug's email address is doug@john15academy.com Janet's email address is janet@john15academy.com We mention these resources: The Return of the Prodigal Son - A Story of Homecoming by Henri J. M. Nouwen Education by Design, Not Default - How Brave Love Creates Fearless Learning by Janet Newberry John 15 Academy - resources for parents and teachers Join our financial support team at John 15 Academy and help us provide resources for parents and teachers.

Henri J.M. Nouwen once said, “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted; then I realized that the interruptions were my work.” Join me as I sit down, over coffee, with my friends Joel Bowers and Terry Esau to talk about the pursuit of a life of purpose and life's dance between the planned and the unknown. www.thecuriouspod.com/questions/gardenerorarchitect

Presbyterian minister Marjorie Thompson joins us today to talk to us about courage, hope, and curiosity amidst our pain and grief. How do we have courage when facing loss? How do we not become fearful when we are brave enough to become curious about our pain? We talk about these questions as well as themes like care versus cure in Marjorie's book, Courage for Caregivers. In the book, Marjorie builds on the work of her spiritual mentor, Henri J.M. Nouwen, to address the demanding physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges of caregiving and care receiving, while also illuminating the gifts each can bring into our lives. Check out some of the resources we talk about below, and enjoy the peace and wisdom Marjorie brings to the pod today! Courage for Caregivers on IVP: https://www.ivpress.com/courage-for-caregivers Courage for Caregivers on Amazon: https://amzn.com//dp/1514005565/ “The Wounded Healer” by Henri Nouwen: https://amzn.com/dp/0385148038/ “Life of the Beloved” by Henri Nouwen: https://amzn.com/dp/0824519868/ Ignatian Retreats: https://www.ignatianonlineretreat.com/ Tera IG: @terabradham Heal IG: @heal_ministry Tera's Website: terabradham.com Heal's Website: thehealministry.com

In this episode of "Henri Nouwen Now & Then", we meet distinguished scholar and award-winning author Dr. Michael W. Higgins.  Co-author of "Impressively Free: Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood", Michael shares incredible insight into the significance of Nouwen's life and writing, and offers a savvy perspective on the state of the Catholic Church today. * EPISODE PAGE: https://henrinouwen.org/listen/michael-higgins/ To PURCHASE "Impressively Free: Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood" by Michael W. Higgins Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3H3EKDX Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3WyrFYY To PURCHASE "Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life" by Henri Nouwen Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3fpnolF Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/2C2lqcD ____________ * TO WATCH FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY "Journey of the Heart: The Life of Henri Nouwen": www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U8M1gx5Rk4&t=1808s * LISTEN on iTUNES: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/henr…ty/id1468489942 * LISTEN on SPOTIFY: open.spotify.com/show/2Cxu6BwtNHlzFT7RzlixWJ * WATCH the PODCAST on YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iObxkzRYD…hJK5NW-5ERuN2XAH0 * TO SIGN-UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * FOR HENRI NOUWEN SOCIETY CAREGIVING RESOURCES: henrinouwen.org/caregiving/ * MORE FREE RESOURCES: www.henrinouwen.org * READ HENRI NOUWEN BOOKS: henrinouwen.org/read/

“You have to be really agile and flexible, but also really stubborn about the problems you're going to solve,” says Alan Chiu, co-founder of Boba and its contributing company Enya.ai, about the dual attributes successful founders must possess. Blockchain technology, similarly, is a balance of traits. On one hand, it  offers a number of opportunities. The open source format and permissionless entree allow people who might otherwise be hindered by their geographical location, race, gender access to a business's information. This transparency has the potential to decentralize power, and form a system of checks and balances that keep everyone more honest. However, this type of demand on the system leads to slower performance and higher costs. This is where Boba comes in, as it's the only blockchain platform that takes advantage of blockchain's features while utilizing the sustainability of Web 2 infrastructure.  Alan discusses how the blockchain model makes money, how to identify the right time to execute on a plan. He talks about the most difficult aspect of scaling and how he approaches risk. First and foremost you must evaluate the founders when deciding to invest in companies, and that those founders must have a balance of strong convictions and openness to new ideas and methods.  Continuing the theme of balance, Alan discusses how he manages both the longterm and shortterm goals of his team. He gives his thoughts on the most common mistakes founders make when starting a company, and the most common reason they fail to scale.  Quotes: “If these cryptocurrencies increase in value, you are starting to build a pretty interesting portfolio without being subject to biases against age, gender, ethnicity, geographical location. And that's really powerful. This is the type of opportunity that used to be reserved for Silicon Valley engineers. Now anyone in the world can have access to. (9:05-9:29 | Alan) “The reason blockchains are always going to be much slower than a traditional web two infrastructure like AWS is because there's a cost to synchronizing all of these mills that the mega blockchain network with these centralized, the decentralized nature of blockchains is both a feature but also puts a limit on how many transactions you can do per unit time.” (13:26-13:47 | Alan) For any disruptive technology, in the early days, it's really hard to come up with something quantifiable and justify that with data, because everything is so new. (17:48-18:01 | Alan) “One of the most difficult aspects of being a founder is, on one hand, you've got to have strong conviction around your vision because there's going to be a lot of headwind and a lot of uncertainty, if you don't have strong conviction, it's really hard to sustain. On the other hand, you've got to be really open to advice and feedback, especially feedback from customers, whether they want what you're building or not. You're learning and adapting and changing to your customer feedback, and also to a changing competitive landscape and market dynamics and new technologies that continue to evolve.” (20:47-21:20 | Alan)  “Sometimes the best path forward is actually not commercializing the innovation itself. But finding some application for the innovation in a product or service. And commercializing that instead, and using the core innovation as a creative driver of a competitive advantage.” (52:01-53:01 | Alan) Links: Connect with Brendan Dell: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell Instagram: @thebrendandellTikTok: @brendandell39 Buy a copy of Brendan's Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926  Connect with Alan Chiu:Twitter:@alanchiuhttps://www.enya.ai/Check out Alan Chiu's recommended books:   Connect: Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780593237090   The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780142001103   The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom by Henri J.M. Nouwen https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385483483   The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical by Robert Siegel  https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781264257775 Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Billion Dollar Tech on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Use code Brendan30 for 30% off your annual membership with RiverSide.fm  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

In this ProveText episode of the "3 Things" series, Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb discusses Max Lucado, Henri Nouwen, and Dave Chappelle. Listen in. | GlossaHouse.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/glossahouse/message

SUPPORT THE PODCAST It takes a lot to create our podcast episodes! Please consider a gift to support this vital ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our Donation Page on our Website Donate using our new App Send by mail (Potter's Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast) ________________________________________________________ SHOW NOTES On our final podcast for this season, Steve has a remarkable and soulful conversation with author, teacher, and leader Majorie Thompson. They discuss her long friendship with Henri Nouwen and her roles as an author, spiritual director, publisher, and eventual care giver to her own mother and mother in law, which shifted her role and required sacrifices and humility. It's a beautiful conversation and we look forward to you joining us for it! ABOUT OUR GUEST Marjorie J. Thompson is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church USA. She received her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Swarthmore College, and her Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary. Following a post-graduate pastoral internship, she became a Research Fellow at Yale Divinity School where she studied Christian spirituality with Henri Nouwen and did independent research in ecumenical traditions of prayer. She has served as director of the Pathways Center for Spiritual Leadership and as spiritual director to Companions in Christ, a program outgrowth of the Pathways initiative of The Upper Room. She is the author of Family, The Forming Center and Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life.. She is a widely sought retreat leader, teacher, and speaker in the area of Christian spirituality. She and her husband John live in Kingston Springs, Tennessee. Courage for Caregivers: Sustenance for the Journey in Company with Henri J. M. Nouwen by Marjorie Thompson All of Marjorie's books The Great Annual Examen - An Exercise to Look Back, Look Within, and Look Forward   RESOURCES MENTIONED IN PODCAST Henri Nouwen Website A Spirituality of Caregiving by Henri Nouwen   MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 34:52: Cathedral of the Pines by Tim Janus Music Break at 1:09:07: Be Thou My VIsion - Nathan Pacheco FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook Soul Care Conversations Group Page Potter's Inn Main FB Page Instagram   CONTACT US podcast@pottersinn.com INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our recommended reading, books on spiritual growth, and our soul care blog. Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care intensives and retreats.     

We find ourselves again beginning a new Christian year with Advent. This year the lectionary finds us in Cycle A. In this episode Ruth helps us prepare for advent with an invitation to use this season as actual space to practice sabbath keeping. She shares some of the greater themes we find in Advent and helps connect them to what we've explored in our understanding of the sabbath. Finally, she closes with some reflections on a poem by David Adam.    Our hope is that this episode helps prepare your heart for Advent. While we will not be releasing weekly episodes during Advent this year, we invite you to return to season 8 of the podcast Advent and Christmas Reflections (Cycle A) which walks through the Cycle A scriptures. Additionally, we will be providing weekly guidance, which will include spiritual practices, to our patrons. Sign up at the $10 level to ensure you receive every weekly offering. Cycle A Scripture: Week 1 Isaiah 2:1-5     Psalm 122    Romans 13:11-14    Matthew 24:36-44   Week 2 Isaiah 11:1-10     Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19    Romans 15:4-13    Matthew 3:1-12   Week 3 Isaiah 35:1-10     Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:46b-55    James 5:7-10    Matthew 11:2-11   Week 4 Isaiah 7:10-16    Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19    Romans 1:1-7    Matthew 1:18-25   Christmas Eve and Christmastide Isaiah 9:2-7    Psalm 96    Titus 2:11-14    Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)   Also mentioned in the episode Eternal Seasons: A Liturgical Journey with Henri J.M. Nouwen ed by Michael Ford Tides and Seasons: Modern Prayers in the Celtic Tradition by David Adam   Music Credit: Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist O Come O Come Emmanuel from Transforming Center Resource Advent Music in Solitude   Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn't fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!     The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

the need for material success, popularity, and power stem from self-rejection / "Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.” Henri J.M. Nouwen  / don't get triggered out of the treasure / the only satisfying identity is I am spirit / the soul is a person and an enjoyer in reality / non-binary gender identification mentioned in Srimad-Bhagavatam / our factual position - both one with and different from God / every Starbucks should have a swan 40% off Divya's Masterclass with link https://divyas.com/?ref=6799   SB 4.28.55-65

Bob Roberts is a larger-than-life Baptist Preacher turned global engagement pioneer and independent global diplomat whose best friends are with people far outside of his own East Texas tribe. Bob began mentoring me two decades ago with his words, his actions, and his time.  I'll never forget the day he drove me to Barnes and Noble in the mid-cities of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex and loaded me up with what today are foundational books in my personal library. Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy, and Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat were two of the books that he bought for me (still two of my top 5 all-time reads).  There were a couple of nuanced books that threw me off; a book from Henri Nouwen and another about the now renowned Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh. Perplexed, I dove into the books on global engagement as they spoke to my inner desire for circumnavigate-able adventure.  Nouwen and van Gogh would wait.   Twenty years later I picked up a book entitled Learning from Henri Nouwen and Vincent Van Gogh, that then led me to another Nouwen title The Way Of The Heart.   We are asked frequently by business owners, “why do I feel like I work day and night and yet get nothing done?” Nouwen makes reference to a “wordy world” that we inhabit and then lobs this thought, “we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing.” Van Gogh is said to have been largely unrecognized while alive except among those who knew him and his tight circle of outcasts.   Although, van Gogh had long sense passed when Nouwen was alive, Nouwen wanted to understand van Gogh's relentless pursuit of a compassionate life… a life that compelled him to shed ministerial garb for the poverty-stained garments and conditions of Dutch peasants.   Nouwen built a relationship with Dr. Vincent Van Gogh, the artist's nephew who was key in the realization of the museum that bears his last name in Amsterdam.   Carol Berry writes in Learning, “Henri asked (Dr. Van Gogh) why so many people flocked daily by the thousands to look at his uncle's paintings.  What was it about Vincent that touched a chord that resonated deeply within us?  Henri related Dr. Van Gogh's answer: ‘Because people feel comforted and consoled.  Vincent was able to crawl under the skin of nature and people and find there something truthful, something beautiful, something joyful, and something worth seeing.  He was able to draw out the inner secret of what he saw.'” Here is the question for us as business owners.   How was Bob able to make the time to take me to a bookstore two decades ago and plant powerful seeds of books that would circle back to make influence twenty years later? How was Carol Berry able to share wisdom and insight from two major influencers of human compassion from the academic world and the art world?   How was van Gogh able to “crawl under the skin of nature and people and find there something truthful?” Each one made a singular decision; ignore the other things they could have done and commit to the important things that require their uniqueness and imagination. Skye Jethani writes in his book The Divine Commodity that van Gogh, “warned other artists, ‘Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.'” Put another way, do not become a slave to monotonous distraction.   Jethani goes on to say, “we've been conditioned to avoid silence at all costs lest we be confronted with our own inner chaos…and where there is no exterior noise we feverishly work to produce it.”  When we submit ourselves to constant distraction, to the latest, loudest voice, or worse, when we manufacture our own distraction, we are selling our soul, our creativity, our narrow brilliance for the empty currency of non-caloric entertainment that will need to be refreshed and even more outrageous in an hour.   How do we limit distractions?  Begin practicing solitude. Isolation is not solitude.  Nouwen describes solitude as “the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self…solitude is not a private therapeutic place.  Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born.” You will not find solitude, you must make…make time, make place, make opportunity to sit and be confronted with imagination, with thought, with anger, frustration, joy, and excitement.  Without seeing those things, we cannot experience those things. For some of you business has become a tired, repetitive cycle moving from frustration to frustration.  You have become the slave to your model and the freshness of your dreams and imagination have died. Distraction is not just robbing productivity…it is robbing your soul. Might I suggest you make time to walk into a bookstore and find a book on Van Gogh and just stare at the pictures for a while, and may that help rekindle your imagination and inspiration for the mission of your business. Or, you go back to scrolling your feed.

In this episode of "Henri Nouwen, Now & Then", best-selling author Marjorie J. Thompson, joins us to share her latest book "Courage for Caregivers". Marjorie highlights Nouwen's unique insights on caregiving and how they radically alter the relationship between both the giver and the receiver of care. * EPISODE PAGE: https://henrinouwen.org/listen/marjorie-j-thompson-2/ To PURCHASE "Courage for Caregivers" by Marjorie J. Thopmson Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3cGo0Hy Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3viyQKb To PURCHASE "Hope for Caregivers" by Susan Martins Miller Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3PBRftJ Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3otTpzB "FROM FEAR TO LOVE: Spiritual Grounding in an Age of Anxiety" WATCH on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq385qyR7NY6kURc7O_PDWFSmb5XeHmmw ____________ * TO WATCH FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY "Journey of the Heart: The Life of Henri Nouwen": www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U8M1gx5Rk4&t=1808s * LISTEN on iTUNES: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/henr…ty/id1468489942 * LISTEN on SPOTIFY: open.spotify.com/show/2Cxu6BwtNHlzFT7RzlixWJ * WATCH the PODCAST on YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iObxkzRYD…hJK5NW-5ERuN2XAH0 * TO SIGN-UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * FOR HENRI NOUWEN SOCIETY CAREGIVING RESOURCES: henrinouwen.org/caregiving/ * MORE FREE RESOURCES: www.henrinouwen.org * READ HENRI NOUWEN BOOKS: henrinouwen.org/read/

If you're a professional or at-home caregiver, you likely value and appreciate Susan Martins Miller's wonderful Henri Nouwen-inspired devotional Hope for Caregivers. Ms. Martins Miller joins us on "Henri Nouwen, Now & Then" to talk about the wisdom, grace, and encouragement that Nouwen offers caregivers. * EPISODE PAGE: https://henrinouwen.org/listen/susan-martins-miller/ To PURCHASE "Hope for Caregivers" by Susan Martins Miller Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3PBRftJ Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3otTpzB To PURCHASE "Courage for Caregivers" by Marjorie J. Thopmson Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/3cGo0Hy Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3viyQKb ____________ * TO WATCH FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY "Journey of the Heart: The Life of Henri Nouwen": www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U8M1gx5Rk4&t=1808s * LISTEN on iTUNES: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/henr…ty/id1468489942 * LISTEN on SPOTIFY: open.spotify.com/show/2Cxu6BwtNHlzFT7RzlixWJ * WATCH the PODCAST on YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iObxkzRYD…hJK5NW-5ERuN2XAH0 * TO SIGN-UP FOR FREE DAILY E-MEDITATIONS: henrinouwen.org/meditation/ * FOR HENRI NOUWEN SOCIETY CAREGIVING RESOURCES: henrinouwen.org/caregiving/ * MORE FREE RESOURCES: www.henrinouwen.org * READ HENRI NOUWEN BOOKS: henrinouwen.org/read/