The two great hungers in our world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice. The connection between the two is the one the world, and especially a new generation, is waiting for. We need schools of contemplation and action to help us connect our own inner faith journey to how we live our daily lives in a broken world.
These new wisdom schools have two purposes -- the first is to study and learn the rich contemplative wisdom within our own Christian tradition, knowing that this tradition is open-hearted and eager to learn from other faith traditions as well.
The wider tradition is unanimous, however, in its assertion that the deeper Christianity cannot be known by the mind alone; it requires a transformation of the entire being. That is the second, and in fact, primary purpose of the school. From time immemorial there have been wisdom schools to raise human consciousness and transform society, and to work with the core practices that sustain the transformation of consciousness: meditation, contemplative prayer, lectio divina, sacred song, the language of sacred gesture, simple work in community, and the daily practices of mindfulness, inner observation and surrender.
The schools are conducted in the 1500 year old Benedictine spirit of a balanced daily rhythm of prayer, work, silence and study. Wisdom schools practice the core components of this path: contemplative prayer, lectio divina, chanting the psalms, simple work in community, shared meals, silence, inner practice, and study.
We are honored to have The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault as the first teacher for the Wisdom School at Rolling Ridge. I have been following Cynthia Bourgeault's work for a number of years, and have found her to be my best teacher for centering prayer and inner practice. I stumbled upon her work while exploring the connection between the Christian contemplative tradition and the Fourth Way inner work inspired by Gurdjieff.
Cynthia Bourgeault is the principal Teacher and Advisor to the Contemplative Society, an ecumenical, not-for-profit association that encourages a deepening of contemplative prayer based in the Christian tradition, and an adjunct faculty member at the Vancouver School of Theology. She is a retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer, writer on the spiritual life, Episcopal priest, and part-time hermit, spending half of each year in solitude on Eagle Island in Maine.
Cynthia is passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path and has worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating and others as a teacher of centering prayer, as well as in Sufism and the Christian inner traditions. She is the author of Chanting the Psalms, Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Love is Stronger Than Death, and The Wisdom Jesus, and many articles and audio tapes on the contemplative life. She is a past Fellow of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural research at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN, and an oblate of New Camaldoli Monastery in Big Sur, California.
In 2001 she was invited to become a charter participant in the "Deepening the American Dream Project," sponsored by the Fetzer Institute, joining a select group of other American spiritual writers including Kathleen Norris, Jacob Needleman, Elaine Pagels, Huston Smith, and Parker Palmer. The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart is a revision and expansion of the essay originally written for this project. The Wisdom School at Rolling Ridge will study this text during our week together. It is required reading before coming to the school.
To register for the event, send a $100 deposit to Rolling Ridge. The cost of the school is $465, and includes lodging and meals at the Claymont Society near the Rolling Ridge Community in Harpers Ferry. The school is limited to 40 participants. Cynthia's retreats have a reputation for filling up quickly. If you think you may want to come, sign up soon. The deposit is refundable up to 30 days before the event.
NOTE: This school is currently FILLED. If you would like to be put on the waiting list or be notified of future Wisdom Schools by Cynthia Bourgeault in our area, e-mail Bob Sabath at bsabath@rollingridge.net or phone him at 202-531-7572.
After working with men for the past twenty years, Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has come to the conclusion that most men will not engage on a serious inner journey unless they have to -- often only after great suffering. He has been quietly working with groups of men all over the world to build a new model of male spirituality.
Please join us for our next Seasonal Quiet Day, this one celebrating Autumn: Wednesday, October 20, 10 am - 4 pm. You are welcome to overnight in the Retreat House Tuesday or Wednesday to extend your retreat time!
Cost of the Workshop Weekend - $145, including meals and housing. (If finances are an issue, please contact us.)
*Sigi was the architect who designed Woodhaven and she has done strawbale and plastering workshops here at Rolling Ridge and many other places. She founded Down to Earth to provide healthy, sustainable design and consulting services in the Mid-Atlantic region. For more info visit: 