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January 10, 2011
The Greatest Art Form: Action and Contemplation

I dare to call action  birthed from contemplation the greatest art form because I believe it is. It underlies all those other, more visible art forms we see in great sculpture, music, writing, painting, and most especially in the art form called human character. when these two (action and contemplation) are one, the result is always beauty, symmetry, and transformative form -- lives and actions that inherently sparkle and heal.

With ith most people the process of uniting contemplation and action begins on the "action" side. It is surely this way for the first half of life for almost all of us, even introverts. We learn, experiment, try, do, stumble, fall, break, and find. It is largely done in the outer world of activity, starting with crawling, walking, playing, and speaking. The stage gradually gets larger for these "enactments," but we are still constructing our own good stage on which to perform. (We just don't know it yet!)

September 9, 2010
Men's Rites of Passage at Rolling Ridge with Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM

Think of this time as jumping, or maybe being thrown, into a "life-changing stew" where you simmer for five days in the "transformational mix" of silence, wilderness, and powerful ritual that holds the possibility of breaking open your heart, allowing you to see new possibilities for yourself, and creating "living questions" that will percolate within you and guide you for years to come.

NOTE: Registration for the October 12 - 16, 2011 Men's Rites of Passage at Rolling Ridge, West Virgina has closed. Applications for this MROP have reached capacity and are no longer being accepted. We encourage you to apply to one of the two the remaining two domestic MROPs this year:

February 25, 2012
Advanced Wisdom School with Cynthia Bourgeault

A five-day wisdom school exploring Gurdjieff for Christian Contemplatives

February 25, 2012
Poorer, Poorer. Smaller, Smaller. Slower, Slower.

Bob Sabath, one of Sojourners' founding members, looks back on 40 years of creating community. "It takes a contemplative mind to see one’s own inner contradictions, the failures and inherent betrayals within our own lives and the institutions that we help to create," he says.

"Be anything you want. Be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form. But at all costs avoid one thing: success."
 - Thomas Merton

February 25, 2012
Quiet Days Apart: Endings and Beginnings, a Sacred Rhythm of Life

A year of new mini-retreats for 2012 with Trish Stefanik at Priest Field Pastoral Center  (also planned for October 20, December 1)


Sisters of Mercy foundress Catherine McAuley once said: "We have one solid source of happiness in all our journeying - we can keep our hearts fixed on God."

February 25, 2012
Quiet Days Apart: Learning in Autumn to Trust and Let Go to God

A year of new mini-retreats for 2012 with Trish Stefanik at Priest Field Pastoral Center  (also planned for December 1)


Sisters of Mercy foundress Catherine McAuley once said: "We have one solid source of happiness in all our journeying - we can keep our hearts fixed on God."

February 25, 2012
Quiet Days Apart: Springtime Newness and Resurrection Possibility

A year of new mini-retreats for 2012 with Trish Stefanik at Priest Field Pastoral Center  (also planned June 30, August 18, October 20, December 1)


Sisters of Mercy foundress Catherine McAuley once said: "We have one solid source of happiness in all our journeying - we can keep our hearts fixed on God."

February 25, 2012
Quiet Days Apart: Stilling Our Hearts, Making Room for Christ

A year of new mini-retreats for 2012 with Trish Stefanik at Priest Field Pastoral.


Sisters of Mercy foundress Catherine McAuley once said: "We have one solid source of happiness in all our journeying - we can keep our hearts fixed on God."

February 25, 2012
Quiet Days Apart: Summer’s Delight and Gratitude for the Ordinary

A year of new mini-retreats for 2012 with Trish Stefanik at Priest Field Pastoral Center  (also planned August 18, October 20, December 1)


Sisters of Mercy foundress Catherine McAuley once said: "We have one solid source of happiness in all our journeying - we can keep our hearts fixed on God."

February 24, 2012
Voices in the Wilderness of Soul

Encounters with the Sacred in Nature and the Human Soul

Behold, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her -- Hosea 2:14

So I returned to the river, I returned to the mountains,
and I asked for their hand in marriage.
I begged, I begged to wed every object and every creature.
And when they accepted, God was ever present in my arms. -- Meister Eckhert

February 23, 2012
Fourth Annual Pilgrimage of Peace

Join in a daily rhythm of sung prayer, silence, and common work. Stay for as long as you want, for part of a day or an entire week.

A Friends of Silence Retreat with Br. Stefan Waligur (Macushla)
Still Point Mountain Retreat
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community

Join in a daily rhythm of sung prayer, silence, and common work
Stay as long as you want, for part of a day or an entire week

January 9, 2011
The Stories That Make Us: An Intergenerational Gathering of Men

Reinhold Neibuhr once said, ‘Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a single lifetime.’  Good and heroic men are generations in the making—cradled in the hearts and initiated in the arms of fathers who were cradled in the hearts and initiated in the arms of their fathers.

Feliciana Retreat Center
Norwood, Louisian (North of Baton Rouge)

Woven together, stories are the very fabric of our lives.  They tell us from where we came, speak of who we are, and dare to utter what we may become.  There is great power in the telling and retelling of our stories, vast potential for healing, growth and transformation.  Join Fr. Richard Rohr, Belden Lane, and Joel Blunk for a weekend of telling the stories that make us./p>

January 6, 2011
Meeting The Shadow

The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of the Human Nature. Edited by Connie Zweig and Jeremiah Abrams, Tarcher/Penguin Books.

The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature. Edited by Connie Zweig and Jeremiah.

This book is a collection of 65 wide-ranging articles which present an overview of the dark side of the human nature as it appears in families, intimate relationships, sexuality, work, spirituality, the New Age, politics, psychotherapy, and creativity. It answers the question, "What is the Shadow?" and provides numerous examples of Shadow-Work. This book is a must read .

September 17, 2010
Shadow Practice Intensive for Men

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious: a weekend shadow practice intensive with Jim O'Neill at Rolling ridge.

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious -- C.G. Jung

Everyone has a shadow, which begins in childhood as a result of stuffing away negative feelings in order to build a proper ego. We encounter our shadow when we uncover a long-buried, unacceptable trait in ourselves, when we feel an unexplainable dislike of someone or when we feel overwhelmed by anger, envy, or shame.

September 9, 2010
Adam's Return

The Five Promises of Male Initiation by Richard Rohr, OFM

September 9, 2010
Beloved Son Series

A series on teachings masculine spirituality, male initiation, and the responsibilities of the initiated man.

Fr. Richard Rohr’s teaching on the Beloved Sons Series can be ordered by going to the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) website section - Men's Resource Materials.  They offer a thorough and concise (approximately 35 minutes each) explanation of the following topics:

1: Masculine Spirituality

September 9, 2010
INWARD BOUND: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers for Men Today

A wilderness retreat for men with Belden Lane at Rolling Ridge, June 3-5, 2011.

September 9, 2010
Is it REALLY the end of men? A Webcast and Conference in Washington DC with Fr. Richard Rohr

Join us in person in Washington DC or remotely by webcast.  Many were rightly shocked by the statistical assessment of males in our society by Hanna Rosin's article THE END OF MEN (July-August Atlantic Monthly). What does she have to teach us? What can this perspective offer us? How is Rosin a "stand in" for what many women have been saying to, for, and about men?

Register for this event at Center for Action and Contemplation

September 9, 2010
Men on the Journey

This is a blog inspired by reflections on male spirituality from Richard Rohr's book, On the Threshold of Transforamation: Daily Meditations for Men.

This blog began as an e-mail conversation between a couple of editors—Joe Durepos and Tom McGrath—while they worked on Richard Rohr’s new book, On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men. Inspired by Richard’s words, they had a year-long correspondence that offered each other support as well as challenge.

September 9, 2010
Movies, Videos, DVDs

Movies, Videos, DVDs that might prompt good discussions about male issues by Richard Rohr, OFM

Richard Rohr suggests some moviies, videos, and DVDs that might prompt good discussion about male issues:

September 9, 2010
Radical Grace

A publication of the Center for Action and Contemplation, addressing issues of contemplation and action through topics on social justice, spirituality, theology, simple and sustainable living.

A publication of the Center for Action and Contemplation, addressing issues of contemplation and action through topics on social justice, spirituality, theology, simple and sustainable living.

September 9, 2010
Soul Brothers

Men in the Bible Speak to Men Today, By Richard Rohr

September 9, 2010
The Wisdom Way of Knowing

Reclaiming an ancient tradition to awaken the heart: a five day Wisdom School at Rolling Ridge with Cynthia Bourgeault.

The Wisdom Way of Knowing:
Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition
to Awaken the Heart

A Five Day Wisdom School
at Rolling Ridge
With Cynthia Bourgeault
November 16-21, 2010
Claymont Society
in Harpers Ferry West Virginia

September 9, 2010
Things Hidden

Scripture as Spirituality with Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM

July 1, 2010
Boys Don't Cry

Why developing an inner life is essential to healing men from the explosive violence bottled up within.

We are getting used to the troubling news reports of men who kill their whole families, their wives, their children, or their fellow workers. We are, of course, appalled and saddened, and suspect that these men must have been mentally ill or drunk or on drugs. They often are, but more often the "reason" is probably even deeper and less obvious than addiction or illness.