Course Materials & Recordings:
Title:
Spring Cleaning for Body and Soul: Practices, Chakras, The Magdalene, and Different Ways of Fasting
An in-home Pilgrimage/Retreat—another collaboration between CSC and ML
Following:
Christine Valters Paintner’s
A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent (2024)
Adam Bucko touts this work, saying that Paintner, “takes readers on a transformative pilgrimage of self-discovery and spiritual growth.”
Participants may also wish to obtain the workbook by Mandate Writers (not affiliated with Christine Valters Paintner). This provides ample opportunities for reflection and journaling.
Participants may possibly wish to use these resources:
Steven Charleston’s
Spirit Wheel: Meditations from an Indigenous Elder (2023)
The Four Vision Quests of Jesus (20215)
Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage (2021)
Mary C. Earle’s
The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness
Mary Forman’s
Praying with the Desert Mothers
Matthew Fox’s
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Lessons for Transforming Evil in Soul and Society (1999)
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths (2000)
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations (2011)
Mirabai Starr’s
Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of Women Mystics, especially Chapter 2, “Laying Down Our Burden: Keep the Sabbath Holy”
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (2024)
Ambika Wauters’s
Chakras and Their Archetypes: Uniting Energy Awareness and Spiritual Growth (1997)
Content and Dates:
Eight Wednesdays, 7-8:45 Eastern
We’ll plan to read the material in preparation for each meeting. Then we’ll practice those recommendations during the week. The practices are the emphasis of this endeavor.
February 11: Meeting 1 (Read the Introduction, 1-67, beforehand if possible and work with Ash Wednesday, 71-87, in the book during this week
(chakra 1, balanced relationship with material world and stars—the ground of our being)
Notes from Introduction:
Why 40 days? Following Jesus.
What do you truly hunger for?
Identify patterns/things and compulsions/habits that distract or are life depleting
We could release with burning or dissolving, or offer back to the land (p3)
Trust that practices matter and help
EACH WEEK:
DAY 1: Overview of lectio: love letter, inexhaustible mystery, we make space to hear prayer already at work.(36-37)
Breathe, settle
2X slowly; what shimmers
Meditation: Imagine, savor, stir
Pray: invitation summoning, serving
Contemplate: slow and still
Close
DAY 2: Breath Prayer
DAY 3: Overview of Visio
Settling and Shimmering
Savoring and Stirring
Summoning and Stirring
Slowing and Stilling
DAY 4: Meditations with the Desert Elders
DAY 5: Contemplative Walking
DAY 6: Imaginative Prayer: colloquy, midrash
DAY 7: Rituals, Reflection Questions, Closing Blessing
PREPARATION:
Space
Time
Setting an Intention
DO NOT MEET ASH WEDNESDAY, February 18
Work with pages 71-87
Invitation to Fast from Consuming
Embrace Simplicity
Chakra:
Desert fathers and mothers: radicals
This is a threshold (connect to labyrinth)
Phil Cousineau The Art of Pilgrimage: A Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred Openness, attentiveness, and responsiveness are the essence of pilgrimage. Gift for threshold guardian, intention, question (for the quest is within the question)
Set intention
Consider death*/loneliness
What physical things could I do without now?
What do I want to hold “at the end?”
Ash Wednesday: Reading (JC’s fast and temptation) cf S. Charleston’s Four Vison Quests, Chapter 6
Ash Thursday: Breath: I am from dust, I return to dust
Ash Friday: Meditation with Desert Elders: Abba Arsenius on fasting
Ash Saturday: Create an Altar
February 25: Meeting 2 (Week 1, 89-111, in book)
FAST FROM Multitasking and Inattention (Charleston)
EMBRACE Full Presence to the Moment
CHAKRA 7, connecting with the Source
MONDAY Lectio: Anointing at Bethany
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY Amma Syncletia
Divine Fire (Amma Syncletica) by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan © 2015 Worldmaking.net (Text adapted from the writings of the Desert Mothers) (www.worldmaking.net (2:39) Singing with Monks and Mystics
Fire, divine fire. Fire, divine fire.
We must kindle the divine fire within ourselves.
We must kindle the divine fire within ourselves.
O behold!
O behold!
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY Ritual
N.B.: In-person GHR (Global Healing Response) walk in Crozet, Sunday, March 1, 2:00
March 4: Meeting 3 (Week 2, 113-133, in book)
FAST FROM Scarcity Anxiety (Kimmerer)
EMBRACE Radical Trust in Abundance
CHAKRA 3, embracing one’s personal power
MONDAY Lectio: The Widow’s Mite
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY Visio: Block Print
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY Imaginative Prayer: The Widow’s Gift
SUNDAY Ritual: Earth Mandala
March 11: Meeting 4 (Week 3, 135-153, in book)
FAST FROM Speed and Rushing
EMBRACE Slowness and Pausing
CHAKRA 3, honoring one’s own pace
MONDAY Lectio: JC on Mt. of Olives
TUESDAY Breath: I let go; I rest.
WEDNESDAY Visio: Block print
THURSDAY: Abba Anthony
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY Ritual: Sabbath (M. Starr)
MUSIC: #9 You Can Rest, #10 Lullaby, maybe #12
March 18: Meeting 5 (Week 4, 155-174, in book)
FAST FROM Holding It All Together
EMBRACE Tenderness and Vulnerability
CHAKRA 4, leading with compassion
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
N.B.: CSC Equinox walk on Friday, March 20, 4:30 Eastern
March 25: Meeting 6 (Week 5, 177-194, in book)
FAST FROM Planning and Deadlines (Charleston)
EMBRACE Unfolding and Ripening
CHAKRA 5, speaking with integrity
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY MERTON?
12. Join in the Joy (Thomas Merton) (2:49)
by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan ©2015 Worldmaking.net
www.worldmaking.net
Join in the joy of the cosmic dance, Join in the joy.
La la la la la! La la la la la!
La la la la la la la!
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
April 1: Meeting 7 (Week 6, 197-218, in book)
FAST FROM Certainty
EMBRACE Mystery and Waiting, Focus on Mary Magdalene, Sacred Viewing
CHAKRA 6, connecting with mysticism and wisdom
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
N.B.: CSC First Thursday Paschal walk on Thursday, April 2, 4:30 Eastern
April 8: Meeting 8 (last section of book, 219-227)
Living the Wisdom Forward—Resurrection Blessings
Focus on Mary Magdalene, Sacred Viewing
CHAKRA 2, embracing the healthy feminine
Practices:
Contemplative Prayer Practices:
Sacred Reading
Breath Prayer
Sacred Viewing
Meditations with the Desert Elders
Contemplative Walking (including labyrinth)
Imaginative Prayer
Rituals: Building an Altar; Adding Representations for the Senses
Music
Dancing (with instruction)
Reflection/discussion
Blessings
Promo pitch:
Various spiritual traditions recommend fasting from food. Examples from the Abrahamic religions include Lent in Christianity and several Major and Minor fasts in Judaism. Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan each year. Buddhism also features fasting, as does Bahai. Hinduism is another religion that fasts. Mormons offer fasting options each month. Some pagans fast before the Spring Equinox. Apparently abstaining from food has a time-honored place in human history.
Perhaps humans innately desire to spring clean—body as well as soul!
Paintner tells us that, “Fasting is preparation, which means clearing out a space for something new to enter.”
Maybe the real question is: What do we truly hunger for?
This is our second collaborative effort at following a book, discussion/in-home retreat for what many hold as a sacred season in which to focus on what to leave behind and what to grow into more. It is hoped to be a forty-day sacred journey through the wilderness—right in our own homes, on our own schedules.
Join us this spring to practice ways to embrace presence, abundance, slowness, tenderness, unfolding, and mystery. We’ll read and discuss. We’ll journal and pray. We’ll walk the labyrinth. Hopefully, we’ll strengthen some practices we can carry with us into the rest of the year. As Paintner says: “our invitation is to practice here and now.” We shall attempt to empty in order to be filled.
If you are allured, please join us. It won’t be the same without you!
Mary Ann Wamhoff will facilitate this event. Debbie Scott will offer Visio practice on Mary Magdalene. While the content of these sessions will be recorded(except for breakout sharing), it is recommended that participants join in the zoom room as much as possible.