Walk to the well, turn as the earth and the moon turn, circling what they love. Whatever circles comes from the center. —Rumi
It has been said that the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all. By "mysticism" is meant. . . an authentic experience of God that emerges from the center of our existence." —Karl Rahner
Photo below: Mask-making in "Art as Spiritual Practice" course
Integrating Expressive Arts and Spirituality
My work brings together my training in Christian spirituality and other spiritual traditions with the expressive arts and dream work.
By engaging the expressive arts, we engage the symbolic, emotional, and intuitive dimensions of ourselves through movement and dance, music and sound, writing (poetry, journaling), and visual art (drawing, painting, collage, clay) in a safe and supportive setting to facilitate growth, healing, renewal, and transformation. We make space for encounter with our authentic selves and God, and discover previously unknown facets of the sacred dwelling within and without, awakening us to new awareness.
By grounding this work theologically, we begin to see how our scriptures and tradition offer us a framework to understand ourselves as creative beings, created in the image of a Creator God. Flowing from this understanding are both the profound recognition of the gift we are given and the responsibility to nurture and use this gift wisely in service of bringing wholeness to the world.
Nurturing Creative and Contemplative Ministry
"Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece" -John Paul II, Letter to Artists (1999)
"The glory of God is the human person full alive" -Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century)
By infusing creative and contemplative ways of being and praying into ministries of spiritual formation and direction, we empower those to whom we minister by giving them tools to cultivate the sacred art of living.
Nurturing contemplative space is essential to engaging the creative process. Nurturing the creative process helps us to expand our imaginations and vision of what is possible in the world.
