Weekly gatherings Wednesdays, 5:00-6:00pm Eastern

After Wednesday, May 15, we'll take a break, as I prepare for a new role

Our Wednesday evening gatherings via Zoom have been a life-giving experience for me for years now. As of June, 2024, I will be assuming a new role as Interim Rector of St. Andrew’s On-the-Sound in Wilmington, NC, so I will need to pause these gatherings for a season. If you subscribe to Contemplative Chapel (no cost), you’ll receive an announcement when gatherings resume.

For any who are new to Contemplative Chapel, below is information about how we have gathered in the past.

If you are interested in learning about contemplative practice and meditation, or if you are a seasoned practitioner who would like to join us for quiet reflection and silent prayer, please join us. Our sessions via Zoom are resuming on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, and each Wednesday session is from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Eastern.  No experience is necessary; we would love to have you. Click here to register for the Zoom link. (For returning participants, this is the same link we’ve always used.)

A good place to begin: Contemplative Outreach publishes two pamphlets that I recommend highly - one on the ancient practice of Lectio Divina and the other on Centering Prayer. If you would like to join our virtual gatherings, please read these two pamphlets carefully. Although I will review the basics every time we get together, these pamphlets will prepare you nicely. Even if you are experienced in these ways of contemplative prayer, I think these little pamphlets can be re-read, over and over, to remind us of a counter-cultural way of being. The world is reminding us every day about the importance of planning, being organized, and orchestrating things. Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer depend on an entirely different posture: a posture of openness, receptivity, trust, surrender, letting go, and listening, so that another may speak and welcome you home again. These pamphlets can help with that.

Our virtual gatherings continue to be an important part of my life. Just knowing that this community of goodwill and warmth for one another exists is a great encouragement.

Caring for your soul is not a selfish practice; rather, it’s inherently selfless, because reverent care for the soul inevitably awakens greater depths of compassion and care for others. Many of you have clearly experienced this deeper awakening and soulful softening, and your spiritual companionship on the journey been a gift to me.