Our Mission
We are a center for experiential education, rooted in the Gospels, encouraging the transformation of human consciousness through contemplation, and equipping people to be instruments of peaceful change in the world.
Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Saturday, May 21, 2011
9:00 am – 12:00 pm MDT
Albuquerque, NM
In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identity—climbing, achieving, and performing. But those concerns will not serve us as we grow older and begin to embark on a further journey, one that involves challenges, mistakes, loss of control, broader horizons, and necessary suffering that actually shocks us out of our prior comfort zone. Eventually, we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-giving way.
This message of "falling down"—that is in fact moving upward—is the most resisted and counterintuitive of messages in the world's religions, including and most especially Christianity. Drawing on the wisdom from time-honored myths, heroic poems, great thinkers, and sacred religious texts, Richard Rohr offers a new paradigm for understanding one of the most profound of life's mysteries: how the heartbreaks, disappointments, and first loves of life are actually stepping stones to the spiritual joys that the second half of life has in store for us.
Thank you Richard, Suzanne, and Sheryl for sharing your teachings with us.
Guest Speakers:
Suzanne Stabile is a sought after speaker and teacher, known for her unique and creative approach to the practice of Spiritual Formation. She is the co-founder and animator of Life in the Trinity Ministry, in Dallas, Texas. Ms. Stabile received her B.S. in Social Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she completed additional graduate work in the School of Sociology and Perkins School of Theology. She has served as a high school professor, and as a women's basketball coach at the high school and college levels. Ms. Stabile was also the founding Director of Shared Housing, a social service agency in Dallas.
You can learn more about Suzanne Stabile and her works with Life in the Trinity Ministry by visiting www.lifeinthetrinityministry.com.
Sheryl Fullerton has for the last eleven years been executive editor at San Francisco-based Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of John Wiley & Sons, specializing in thoughtful books in religion and spirituality. She has worn many hats in her long publishing career, most recently before Jossey-Bass as a literary agent with her own agency. In her capacity as an editor, she has worked with and learned from such wonderful authors as Parker Palmer, Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, and, now, Richard Rohr. She has been thinking about and teaching on the topic of meaning in the later part of life for many years.
You can learn more about Sheryl Fullerton and her publications by visiting www.youcanwrite.com.
The Study Guide from the Falling Upward Webcast
