IMAGINE HOPE
 
Dear Friends of God,

Let me first announce that there is a change in the composition of our core community here at the ashram. Brother Art Kirwin, who has been with us for the past year, is moving to a new community in Raleigh, NC. And Brother Marty Iott, a native of Michigan, has joined us. You can find out more about Marty and the community by clicking on "Community" here on our website.

Also, Jean-Jacques Perennes is with us just for the weekend of October 13-14. I mention this since he was our first guest at the ashram in Kenosha back in 1999. He was with us for several months. In the ashram there he began to write his biography of Pierre Claverie, the Algerian Dominican bishop who was assassinated in 1996. The biography comes out in English this month from Orbis Press. Jean-Jacques currently lives in Cairo where he is involved with Christian-Muslim dialogue as well as being a vicar for the Dominican Family in Iraq.

With this reference to Iraq, as well as to the many many troubled areas in our world, not to mention the coming year as a long year of campaigning and national elections here in the United States, our hearts and minds often turn to hope and where it can be found. Thus I would like to share with you a few lines from an earlier preaching at Evening Prayer by our ashram coordinator, Sister Pat Horan:

"IMAGINE HOPE. Imagine hope as based on the conviction that God is at work in our lives and world. Synonymous with nonviolent peacemaking is the great souled Gandhi. Persistent hope was a hallmark for Gandhi who followed a vision of truth. Gandhi is known to have said, 'I like your Christ, but your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Why don't they obey the sermon on the mount, reject war, practice non-violence and love their enemies?' In Judith Brown's book, 'Gandhi,' one chapter is entitled 'Prisoner of Hope'. Imagine being a captive of hope!

Very recently my gaze was taken by the cover of Amnesty International Magazine and the article on Guantanamo Poems written by tortured detainees. 'Hunger Strike Poem' contains these lines:
Where is the world to save us from torture?
Where is the world to save us from the fire and sadness?
Where is the world to save the hunger strikers?

We might ask, Where is the hope? Imagine being a prisoner of hope. Imagine hope. Imagine peace."

Our world needs imagination. Can imagination be one of the fruits of contemplation?
Posted on 10/11/2007 03:30:00 PM.

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New Ashram Coordinator
 
Dear Friends,

We have completed our Lenten journey and Easter Season with the celebration of Pentecost. Awareness of the gift of the Holy Spirit remains with us as does our awareness that the ashram itself is a work of the Spirit. In so many ways through the years, the Spirit came through and continues to do so.

Recently, on Pentecost Sunday itself (May 27, 2007), Pat Horan assumed responsibility for leading, guiding, and coordinating our ashram life. Pat is a Dominican Sister from Blauvelt NY and has been a member of the core community since we re-located to Adrian, MI. There is more information about her in the section on our community at this website.

I am very grateful to Pat for her willingness to accept this ministry on behalf of the ashram. I myself have been the coordinator for the ashram from its beginning in the Fall of 1999. I have been ready to pass on this responsibility for some time, and the timing now seemed right as we have become settled into our new home. Pat brings a wealth of experience and deep commitment to contemplative living and was the community's choice.

Guests have continued to come to share in our life. During some of the summer weeks we will be full. We particularly welcome Sister Judith Anne O'Sullivan, a Dominican Sister from New Zealand, former prioress for the New Zealand Dominican Sisters, who will be spending the months of June, July, and August with us.

God's goodness continues to come in abundance. We give you thanks, O God.

Donald Goergen, OP
Posted on 5/30/2007 08:25:00 AM.

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Which Self Do I Feed?
 
Holy Week and the Easter Season are close at hand. We will be commemorating the paschal mystery: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of His gift of the Holy Spirit. The Season of Lent has prepared us for these momentous days - especially through the preaching of the Word. A new website featuring daily Domincan preaching has been put in place by Scott Steinkerchner, O.P., if you wish to visit . I look back at the preaching during Lent that has prepared my own heart and soul for the Easter Season ahead and several memorable and challenging homilies come to mind. I would like to share here a portion of an earlier preaching by Sister Pat Horan, O.P., a member of our ashram community. Pat's preaching gives meaning to the words, "filled with the Spirit." The following comes from her reflection on Mark 7:14-23 (during the fifth week in Ordinary Time).

" Albert Nolan in his work, JESUS TODAY, tells us that 'the world was upside down' before Jesus came to put it 'right side up!' Today Jesus calls together the gathered crowd, and later the disciples in private, and teaches by shedding light on the mindset of some of the Pharisees in their fanatic adherence to traditions of ritual purity -- distorting God's intention. Food does not enter the heart and cannot defile the inner core of a person. The example suggests a clear distinction between the inner person (religion and morality) and the outer being (ritualism). The local folk 'get it.'

The following story illustrates the point:
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, 'My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, false pride and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: Which wolf wins?
The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'"

Which one do I feed? My false self or my true self? As we ponder the power of the Holy Spirit during the coming Easter Season, we all know which one we need to feed. May you all have a Spirit-filled, Pentecostal, Easter Season as we continue to nourish our contemplative lives.

Posted on 3/29/2007 04:28:00 PM.

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