A life of creativity is an expression of our role of co-creators with God says musical and visual artist Jessica Gerhardt. Her spiritual journey and influences have taught that “we all have an invitation to lean into creativity as people who are made in God’s image.” She also discusses with host Jean Kelly how meditation like audio divina helps us to also take social action with “spiritual and emotional sobriety” that makes our involvement sustainable.











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About







Jessica Gerhardt is a queer, Catholic LA-native singer-songwriter with a distinct spiritual bent. Having grown up in a Catholic-Jewish mixed-faith family, Jessica was shaped by inclusive notions of religion. She claims this spiritual identity in her debut LP, Alight Beyond the Sea, which centers around Psalm 139 and God’s presence in sorrow and joy, in darkness and light, and in seeking to live authentically. Jessica is also a sponsored Lanikai Ukuleles artist, co-founder of the arts collective Parnassus & Co, founder of the house-concert series Friday at The Fox Den, writes on occasion for National Catholic Reporter, sells her art via her Etsy shop Work of Human Hands, and is a high school theology teacher. 

“It’s all yours. Everything is yours. It’s always been yours, and it always will be.
Take it from me, I return it to you. Just dwell in me and I’ll dwell in you.” Suscipe, by Jessica Gerhardt












Music can be a starting point for meditation and prayer, something called Divine Listening or “audio divina.Listen as host Jean Kelly and musical artist Jessica Gerhardt lead you toward rest in the Divine via guided meditation, melody, lyrics, silence, and pause, featuring an original composition and live performance inspired by a prayer of surrender written by St. Ignatius of Loyola.















Stream the album by clicking on the cover above.







About the Author & Text







L.A.-based singer-songwriter Jessica Gerhardt grew up in a Catholic-Jewish mixed-faith family, so was shaped by inclusive notions of religion. This bears out in the spiritual identity she claims in Alight Beyond the Sea, which centers around Psalm 139 and God’s presence in sorrow and joy, in darkness and light, and in seeking to live authentically. In addition to composing all ten songs on the record, she hand-embroidered the cover art for each, making this album a work of art both visually and audibly.

“I can’t meditate.” “I don’t have time for deeper spirituality because I’m too busy fighting political division and injustice.” Those are common refrains, but in this discussion of meditation, spiritual reading, and contemplation as practiced in both Christianity and Sikhism, best-selling author Simran Jeet Singh and host Jean Kelly debunk common myths about meditation. They conclude that the connectedness to God and all creation discovered in deep prayer can change both us as individuals and our world. Singh says “Being religious is more than being spiritual; it is being political.”











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About







South-Texas native Simran Jeet Singh is a professor of history at the historic Union Theological Seminary and national bestselling author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life  and senior advisor for the Aspen Institute’s Religion and Society Program. He hosts Wisdom & Practice, a new podcast on PRX.

“Adopting love and oneness as mindfulness practices helped transform me …[They] cultivated in me a feeling of connection and joy that extends beyond personal relationships.” Simran Jeet Singh 











Approaches to meditation in both Eastern and Western faith traditions provide the same fruits: ending division, creating personal and social transformation, and connecting us to God and each other with deeper love.















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About the Author & Text







South-Texas native Simran Jeet Singh is a professor of history at the historic Union Theological Seminary and national bestselling author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life  and senior advisor for the Aspen Institute’s Religion and Society Program. He hosts Wisdom & Practice, a new podcast on PRX.

“His eyes. His eyes as steady as a fisher’s netpulled me to him. Again I fell and never broke the stare.” Fr. Joseph A. Brown “Luke”












Imagining ourselves in scriptural texts is one way to “respond” in lectio divina. This poem by Fr. Joseph A. Brown, SJ, arose from his Ignatian contemplation practice, a form of “imaginative” prayer, in response the story of Simon of Cyrene saying “yes” to carrying the cross of Jesus. When you listen, consider your own response to Luke 23:26-29. 
Do the eyes of Christ on the road to Calvary draw you nearer?
















Explore this and other poems in Presence:  A Journal of Catholic Poetry.







About the Author & Text







Joseph A. Brown, S. J., Ph.D. a native of East St. Louis, Illinois, is a Catholic priest andmember of the Society of Jesus. He is a professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Director of the School of Africana and Multicultural Studies. He has published several poetry collections and serves on the board of Presence journal. He also composes the blog, “The Sankofa Muse.

Host Jean P. Kelly and author Kenneth R. McIntosh discuss how understanding both Celtic & Eastern spirituality can liberate the Christian imagination.











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Kenneth McIntosh’s commitment to live the compassion of Christ has inspired three decades of service as pastor for six different churches in five different denominations, where he worked to heal the world’s wounds while cultivating a deeper connection with the Divine. He is a pastor of the United Church of Christ and author of dozens of books, many inspired by travel in Celtic countries.

“Some of us, who are focused on the flow of the Tao, are like skilled river-runners in kayaks, skimming along atop the white-water, flowing with the current. …[We] only need to make slight efforts to propel forward.” Kenneth R. McIntosh











The intersection of teachings in Celtic Christianity and Eastern faiths offers strength of both the oak (Celtic spirituality) and the lotus (Eastern wisdom), writes Kenneth McIntosh in his new book, Oak & Lotus: Celtic Christian Spirituality in the Light of Eastern Wisdom. “And I understand my Christian faith better in the light of both Asian and Celtic understanding.”















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About the Author & Text







Kenneth McIntosh’s commitment to live the compassion of Christ has inspired three decades of service as pastor for six different churches in five different denominations, where he worked to heal the world’s wounds while cultivating a deeper connection with the Divine.  He is a pastor of the United Church of Christ.He is the author of dozens of books, many inspired by his travel in Celtic countries.

“I saw too the reverence that everyone must have for a sinner; instead of condoning his sin, which is in reality his utmost sorrow, one must comfort Christ who is suffering in him..” Caryll Houselander











The ability to see others with compassion must be cultivated, practiced, and intentional, says a twentieth-century mystic who became known for her capacity to hold and cherish the suffering of others.















 







About the Author & Text







Caryll Houselander was a twentieth-century writer and artist who lived most of her life in London. She experienced her first mystical vision as a child and then again in a commuter train, both documented in the first of her two spiritual memoirs.  Once dubbed a “DivineEccentric,”  Houselander endured much personal suffering, but because she linked her trials with Christ’s passion, she found divinity in everyone amid the ordinariness of daily life. 

Artist, influencer, writer Grace Morbitzer offers a guided meditation using her modernized portrait of Sts. Clare and Francis of Assisi.In 5 simple steps, learn about a holy man and holy woman, at the same time connecting their lives to your own in a moment of mindfulness, meditation and deepening. Reflect on the nature of holy friendship and the need we all have for “holy cheerleaders,” or intercessors in heaven. The steps of “visio divina” or divine seeing are Regard, Reflect, Respond, Receive, Resolve. To learn more about spiritual reading, subscribe to the Read.Pray.Write. Podcast newsletter, Gracelines: https://bit.ly/3Ve66P3











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“At the root of this connection is empathy; the result is kindness, compassion, respect, and understanding.” Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis















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About the Author & Text







The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis uses her gifts as author, activist, preacher, and public theologian toward creating an anti-racist, just, gun-violence-free, fully welcoming, gender affirming society in which everyone has enough. She has published in major media and is host of the podcast Love Period. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Lewis is the first African American and first woman to serve as a senior minister in the Collegiate Church, which was founded in New York City in 1628 and is the oldest continuous Protestant Church in North America.