Thursday, June 29, 2017

Nine days with Ada María Isasi-Díaz: an online retreat

Longing for meditative time *and* new energy in your busy life?
Eager to discover --or remember-- the life and work of Ada María Isasi-Díaz?

Aware that spirituality involves struggle, community, family, in daily life?
Curious about or committed to listening to the wisdom of grassroots Latinas?

Join us!

Nine Days with Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz
an online retreat
July 17-25, 2017



Ada María Isasi-Díaz (1943-2012), born in La Habana, Cuba, came to the United States as a political refugee at the age of 18. Educated in Catholic and ecumenical Protestant institutions, she became a professor of Ethics at Drew University Divinity School in 1991, the year after receiving her Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary. She taught at Drew until her retirement in 2009. Isasi-Díaz was the editor and author of several books, including En La Lucha/In the Struggle: Elaborating a Mujerista Theology and Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century. Her development of a mujerista theology was, within the rich field of liberation theology, the expression of the theological, ethical, and socio-cultural insights of grassroots Latinas, whom she always considered her "community of accountability." Her final project was co-editing the book Theological Perspectives for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Public Intellectuals for the Twenty-First Century.

Isasi-Díaz  became involved in the movement for the ordination of Catholic women in the 1970s. During her years at Drew, she maintained both  her residence in New York City and her involvement in Our Lady Queen of Angels parish in El Barrio, East Harlem. After the decision by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York to close the church building in early 2007, Isasi-Díaz helped to lead protest vigils and and worship services outside the church on the sidewalk, frequently serving as preacher at the weekly service. She was an activist for social justice as well as church justice, not simply asking for church reform but living new ways of being church at the heart of her community. Her lifelong attention to the lives of grassroots Latinas nourished her ethical, theological, and spiritual thinking.

The online retreat will focus on the meaning and lived experience of realities and concepts basic to AMID's life and work, including lo cotidiano (daily life); la lucha (the struggle); la comunidad/la familia (community/family); permítanme hablar (allow me to speak); un poquito de justicia (a little justice); place and being a person of multiple locations; and kin-dom.

Note: The meaning and resonance of the Spanish words are not fully embodied in their English translations. These words cannot be divorced from their Latina/o cultural, political, economic, religious, and linguistic context. AMID, who wrote in both English and Spanish, used the Spanish words above in her English texts, and so will we.

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Monday, July 17, 2017.

* The writings of Ada María Isasi-Díaz will provide us with focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:
one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days
* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)
Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me. The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!



Retreat fee (choose one)




Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.



An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and a little music to feed the soul) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

NOTE:

This retreat is not a replacement for the in-depth study of Dr. Isasi-Diaz's life and thought. Like our other online retreats (inspired by --among others-- Dorothy Day, Dorothee Soelle, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton, and William Stringfellow) this one offers a carefully chosen selection of wisdom from a larger body of writing, together with attention to the life that produced and reflected this wisdom and to ways we can learn from this wisdom in daily life.

 Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Reminder: Stringfellow online short retreat starts tomorrow! (MONDAY JUNE 26)


A polemical, circus-loving, biblical, critical, incarnational, political, Psalms-praying, "almost but not quite out" partnered gay man, an Episcopalian, lawyer and theologian. You don't want to miss this. Nine days in the company of William Stringfellow. (1928-85). Online retreat begins Monday! That's tomorrow. June 26. See here for details.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Summer 2017 online retreats and classes: register now!

Registration is open for the first Redmont Retreats online offerings of the summer.

Click on the links below for more information and to sign up.
Links are this color orange -- a different color from the rest of the post. If a course or retreat title is not yet orange, it's that the link isn't up yet.
This blog post will be updated with the remaining live links next week. Meanwhile, the beginning-in-June program information is up, as are two of the beginning-in-July retreat information pages! Click, read, register!
Idaho road near Priest Lake, (c) Jane Redmont 2011

This summer, we are offering three types of online programs:

(1) Five short nine-day retreats, simple and adaptable to your daily schedule:
one excerpt or quotation per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer or meditation per day
      for nine consecutive days
Click below for information and registration. Try one retreat for starters, or sign up for two right away! (Ask me about early bird discounts and about group rates for your congregation or group of friends.)
June 15-23:  Nine Days with Dorothy Day
June 26-July 5Nine Days with William Stringfellow
July 7-15Nine Days with Howard Thurman
July 17-25Nine Days with Ada María Isasi-Díaz
August 14-22Nine Days with Dorothee Sölle
(2) One five-week class (with a retreat option if you want to add it - no extra charge)
June 19-July 23: Bonhoeffer in His Times and Ours
A 5-week online course-retreat on the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
An adult education class (no grades!) with readings about and by Bonhoeffer, pastor, theologian, resistant against the Nazi regime, martyr. It also includes a dimension of spiritual practice if you would like to add that "thread" to your experience with Bonhoeffer. The format allows for it to be a hybrid of course and retreat, or just a course of readings and online conversation if that is your preference! Minimum of two "check-ins" per week (more if you wish!) but you can check in at any hour of the day or night. Open to all. No religious or academic requirements. Be willing to read and reflect.
(3) Two "mindfulness retreats"

One that we've offered many times before...

July 31-September 10: Hurry Up and Slow Down
Spiritual practice in daily life
A six-week, supportive, gently guided online retreat open to persons with any or no religious or spiritual background. One theme per week: Great if you can't take a vacation this summer, or if you are on vacation and need help unwinding, or if you are away for a bit and then have to meet the daily challenges of "re-entry."
and one brand new...
July 12-August 2: Spirituality and Social Media
A three-week online retreat-and-reflection experience about our social media practices, rhythms, spiritual or religious content, care, conversations, and conflict.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Nine Days with Howard Thurman: begins July 7

Longing for some meditative time in your busy life?
Interested in (re-)discovering the work of a wise guide?
Join us!


Nine Days with Howard Thurman
an online retreat
July 7-15, 2017


Howard Thurman (1899-1981), a philosopher, educator, theologian, and pastor, was an African American born in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era. Nourished by the rich traditions of the Black Church and ordained as a Baptist minister, he was deeply influenced by Quaker thought, especially the mysticism and nonviolence of Rufus Jones. He was also a pioneer in interreligious understanding. His writings --books, prayers, meditations, and sermons-- are rooted in Christianity yet accessible and pertinent to persons whose wisdom path is "spiritual but not religious."

Howard Thurman exercised a deep influence on some of the Civil Rights Movement's leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He traveled to India to meet Gandhi in the 1930s with the first group of African Americans to do so. Thurman served as the first Black Dean of Marsh Chapel, the university chapel at Boston University, and founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, a multicultural, multiracial, and interfaith congregation in San Francisco which is still in existence today. Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited predates Black liberation theology by a generation.

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Friday, July 7, 2017.

* The writings of Howard Thurman will provide us with focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:
one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days
* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)
Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me. The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.
Register here!



Retreat fee (choose one)




Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.


An online retreat? How does that work?
* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and a little music to feed the soul) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

We're back for the summer with lots of online offerings!

We've got summer online retreats and courses coming up!
Intensive nine-day retreats,
longer stretched-out retreats, 

a reboot-new edition-more-of-a-class of the winter Bonhoeffer retreat,

Howard Thurman,
Dorothy Day
William Stringfellow
Ada María Isasi-Díaz
and more! 

Also featuring the return of the popular "Hurry Up and Slow Down" online retreat

and

a new online retreat on spirituality and social media.

Publicity will be out later this weekend
here, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn 
(no Twitter yet but we're thinking about it),

with discounts if you register early or take more than one retreat or class.

Bonhoeffer in His Times and Ours: starts June 19, online!


* The course-retreat offers online resources to participants (and only to them): excerpts from Bonhoeffer's written works, reflection questions, opportunities for conversation with other participants and with your friendly facilitator, spiritual exercises, links to music, images. It does so with the help of fairly simple technology, a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not searchable: random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Our course-retreat blog is private and just for us.

* Once you register for the retreat, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.


What do you mean by "spiritual exercises"?

Spirituality --including Christian spirituality-- involves our entire life. It is bodily as well as mental. It involves our imagination and also our actions. It is about practice, not just thinking.

A spiritual exercise, therefore, may be a prayer or meditation, or a reading assignment or way of reading; but it may also be a piece of writing in a journal, a new or repeated way of interacting with others, a way of gazing or focusing, a practice of fasting or mindful eating, a new way of creating, a daily habit.

Privacy and community

Conversation (online, but not at specified times) is an important part of the course, both because you may want to ask questions and because it's good to have company when we are learning.

Conversation takes place via the comments function on the blog. Only other participants and the facilitator can read them. The blog is only open to course participants.

More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.

Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Nine Days with Dorothy Day

The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Longing for reflective and prayerful time in your busy life?
Need some support and inspiration?
Hungry for justice and mercy?
Wondering about models of Christian commitment
other than the ones making the most noise these days?
Join us for
Nine Days with Dorothy Day
an online retreat
June 16-23, 2017




Dorothy Day (1897-1980) is best known as the co-founder of the Catholic Worker, an anarchist, pacifist, lay Catholic Christian movement, and of the newspaper by the same name. Journalist, activist, mother, speaker, she was also a person of prayer whose Roman Catholic religious observance cannot be separated from her work for social and economic justice and peace or from what Christian tradition calls “the works of mercy.”

Click here for an informative essay on Dorothy Day if you want to know more.


What, when, where, how

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Friday, June 16, 2017.

* The life and writings of Dorothy Day serve as a focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:
one quote or short excerpt per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days
* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)
Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.
The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.
Register here!



Retreat fee (choose one)



Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration. 


An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and sometimes a piece of music too) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not searchable: random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register for the retreat, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.


Privacy and community 

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Nine Days with William Stringfellow

The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Longing for some prayerful and reflective time in your busy life?
Interested in a new perspective on the Bible in these United States?
Wondering about the relationship between Christian faith and social realities?

Join us for
Nine Days with William Stringfellow
an online retreat
June 26-July 5 2017

William Stringfellow (1928-1985), was a lawyer by training and trade, not a professional theologian, though he wrote a dozen books and was one of most astute and insightful Christian thinkers of the 20th century. An Episcopal layman who understood himself very much as "Protestant" and engaged in open criticism of his own beloved church, he was grounded in the prayerful study of scripture. Stringfellow was also a radical social critic preoccupied with the powers of sin and death in the world and in the cosmos.

"My concern," Stringfellow wrote, "is to understand America biblically -- in contrast to the more common tendency, to understand the Bible 'Americanly.'" One of the published summaries of his work notes that his great theme "was the Constantinian compromise, the accommodation of Christianity to the values of the empire and the preservation of status quo."

Click here for an informative essay on William Stringfellow.

What, when, where, how

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Monday, June 26, 2017.

* The life and writings of William Stringfellow serve as a focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:
one quote or short excerpt per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days
* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)
Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.
The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.
Register here!



Retreat fee (choose one)




Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration. 

An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and sometimes a piece of music too) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not searchable: random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register for the retreat, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community 

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

Reminder:  The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.


Block Island, R.I., where Stringfellow shared a home with the poet Anthony Towne