AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Volume 27, Number 2
June 2021

 

In This Issue

"When a mystical experience triggers a psychospiritual crisis, the person will eventually emerge with both a higher level of daily functioning and improved mental health and well-being compared to prior levels before the experience. Recent studies have documented that mystical and spiritually transformative experiences are not only nonpathological but also potentially beneficial.”

Articles

Rob Culhane

 

There are many Thomas Mertons, due to the mystique that surrounds him and the desire by his admirers to enlist him to their various political and ecclesial programs. Merton’s persona is, in part, the result of his own willingness to allow it to be cultivated.

Focus

Nick Wagner

When I was in high school, I had some vague notion that I’d wind up working for a small business like a restaurant or a theater company. As I transitioned from high school to college, I had spiritual awakening and decided to dedicate my life to ministry. Ministry, after all, is a higher calling for the spiritually woke. Well, that’s what I thought when I was eighteen.

Our Sponsors

Artist Spotlight

Linda King Ferguson

Cover Artist Interview

Leah Oates

“Time is layered and not frozen into one single moment. Photography is directly connected to time as the camera shoots in fractions of a second.  Time is always slipping and fracturing from the present, past and future.  We are often living in all these levels at once.  But when we’re not, we experience flow—or an absence of time.  Multiple exposures are close to the experience of “flow.” When I look at a moment in time, I “feel” more than can be recorded with a simple click of the shutter. I use multiple exposures on film to record a more accurate picture of how we can recall time transpiring. ” 

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors

Online International Conference on Ageing & Spirituality – June 2021 – Registration now open at uwaterloo.ca/ageing-spirituality/

Reviews

by Brenda K. Buckwell

Reviewed by Dwight H. Judy

by Sally Longley

Reviewed by Marlene Kropf

by Matt Licata

Reviewed by Stephanie Bussey-Spencer Patton

by Diane Musho Hamilton, Gabriel Menegale Wilson, and Kimberly Loh

Reviewed by Greg Richardson

AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Publisher: Spiritual Directors International

Executive Director: Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, MTS

Editor: Nick Wagner

Media Review Editor:  Pegge Erkeneff

Art Editor: Matt Whitney

Web Designer: Ann Lancaster

Graphic Designer: Tobias Becker

Founding Editor: Susan S. Jorgensen, MA

Poetry Editor: Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann

Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction is published in March, June, September, and December. Presence offers a forum among diverse people and spiritual traditions for the exploration of present and future trends in the art and ministry of spiritual direction. Presence is grounded in the belief that our deepest calling is to be present to one another as we share the gift of ourselves. Presence strives to articulate the essential elements of contemplative practices, formation, and training; to encourage accountability; and to develop clear ethical guidelines. Presence supports a global contemplative dialog of spiritual care and compassion for others, ourselves, and the whole cosmos. ISSN 1081-7662.

Opinions expressed in this journal are the opinions of the authors and advertisers and may not represent the opinions of Spiritual Directors International, the coordinating council, or the editors. All biblical quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.

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