Reflections from Our Directors
Opening To Our History: A Reflection on Place – A White Spiritual Director Listening in an Historically Black Neighborhood
by Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde When Sr. Liz Kerwin gave me my first tour of the Loyola Spirituality Center, I remember being deeply moved learning that the building was once a convent. I loved this history. I loved imagining the former cloister cells of the religious —...
First Advent…then Christmas…followed by Epiphany…reflections from my Minnesota backyard!
by Susanna Bertelsen Like many people, I enjoy sending and receiving Christmas letters. Unfortunately, I am usually late with the mailings. This year, however, I started the process early… the first week of Advent! It had been my 2018 New Year’s resolution…to send...
(Re) Imagining the Christmas Story
by Carolyn Kolovitz When I was a little girl, my December ritual was to sit alone in my living room beside the twinkling tree lights and imagine myself into the coffee table Nativity set. I imagined myself with the shepherds beneath a Bethlehem sky full of angels...
Bouncing Back and Leaping Forward: for Caregivers
by Susanna Bertelsen The first weekend of October my husband and I drove up to Grand Marais hoping to catch the colors of the season. On the ride north on Highway 61 we passed many golden aspen and birch amidst the deep green spruce and other evergreen trees along...
What is the Second Half of Life About?
by Barbara Leonard What is the second half of life? When does it begin? Is it a developmental stage like any other that went before it? What is it all about? In one way the 2nd half of life is like any other developmental stage in that it can’t be easily ignored....
Reimagining Compassion
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]by Susanna Bertelsen “What the world needs now is love, sweet love It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No, not just for some, but for everyone.” Where is...
So, Is That Okay?
by Tom Allen I regularly tell stories in sessions with my own spiritual director about my not being my best self / dealing with shortcomings / disclosing my shadow- self. These are also common conversations in sessions where I am serving as spiritual director to...
A Grand Adventure
by Dan Johnson One of my favorite locations on this earth is a State Park on the north shore of Lake Superior at the mouth of the Temperance River. I've been going there for over 50 years and the beauty of the place never fades. I'll pull into a favorite camping spot,...
Surrender To The Unknown
by Joanne Dehmer SSND In the summer sun and an early darkening sky, I sit at the edge of a lake reflecting on the meaning of these months of 2018. It has been a time of surrender, surrender to the unknown. In January after experiencing extreme tiredness for too long a...