"The Divine Exchange"
Friday, May 9, 2008

The goal of contemplative life is unitive seeing: not so much "union with God" understood as wanting God to the exclusion of all else, but rather, gradually coming to realize that really there is nothing that is not God. (Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening)

In this year's Gerald May Seminar, Dr. Bourgeault will explore the Divine exchange between God and humans. She will examine ways the spiritual practice of surrender, particularly as presented in Centering Prayer, takes us deeper into a heart-knowledge of what this Divine exchange is all about. She will also explore the implications of this heart-knowledge for a new understanding of ecology and environmental responsibility.

For her presentations, Dr. Bourgeault will draw on her own writings, The Gospel of Thomas, Sufi mysticism, the writings of Charles Williams and G.I. Gurdjieff, and contemporary quantum physics-plus the classical insights of Christian mystical and liturgical poetry.

In the Friday lecture, followed by dialogue, Dr. Bourgeault will begin her examination of the divine-human interaction and its implications for all of life.

Wisdom teacher and part-time hermit, the Rev. Dr. 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. She is a retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer, writer on the spiritual life, and Episcopal priest. Cynthia is passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path and has worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating as a teacher of Centering Prayer, Fr. Bruno Barnhart, and other Christian contemplative masters, as well as in Sufism and the Christian inner traditions. She is the author of Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, and Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, as well as many articles on the contemplative life.

The Gerald May Seminar is offered in memory of the life and legacy of Gerald (Jerry) May, Shalem's Senior Fellow for Contemplative Theology and Psychology, and to strengthen the great themes of contemplative understanding and practice that Jerry so valued.

Registration

Online advance registration is now closed. 

You can buy tickets on-site at North Bethesda United Methodist Church on Friday, May 9th beginning at 6:00 pm and on Saturday, May 10th beginning at 9:00 am. 

We look forward to seeing you at this special event!

Or contact Program Registrar,Kit Turen, (301-897-7334 ext. 200).

For directions to North Bethesda United Methodist Church, please click here.