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“Jesus’ Holy Week Journey of Nonviolence”
April 1, 2023
11 am Pacific/ 12pm Mountain/ 1 pm Central/ 2pm Eastern
During this Saturday zoom session, the day before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, Fr. John Dear will guide us through ten key Holy Week episodes from the Gospels to examine the nonviolence of Jesus for clues about how we can be better disciples and better practitioners of Gospel nonviolence.
We will begin with the famous episode from John’s Gospel about the washing of the feet. John Dear will propose that it has nothing to do with service, that instead, a close reading reveals it is a call to anoint one another, to prepare one another to follow Jesus to the cross and be nonviolent martyrs for justice and peace. (This is explained in detail in John’s book, “Lazarus Come Forth!”)
Then, John will reflect from the perspective of nonviolence how Jesus weeps when he sees Jerusalem; rides into Jerusalem on a donkey; engages in civil disobedience in the Temple; offers the Eucharist at the Last Supper; prays in Gethsemane; commands his followers to put down the sword; faces arrest and trial; and goes to his death and resurrection.
Join Fr. John Dear to prepare for Holy Week that together we might accompany Jesus as he carries the cross for justice and disarmament today, that we might deepen in Holy Week nonviolence and discipleship. Most of these reflections are from John’s book, “Walking the Way,” available from wipfandstock.com, which you may want to study ahead of time.
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
Pope Francis’ Call to Peace in ‘Fratelli Tutti’”
with Bishop John Stowe, Pres. of Pax Christi USA
April 15, 2023
11 am Pacific/ 12pm Mountain/ 1 pm Central/ 2pm Eastern
For years now, Pope Francis has been calling the church and the whole human race to practice global mercy, universal love, Gospel peacemaking, even creative nonviolence, so that we might all get to work following the nonviolent Jesus by ending our wars, abolishing our nuclear weapons, feeding and healing the poor, and caring for our common home, Mother Earth. He’s trying hard to live up to his namesake St. Francis.
One of his great documents, “Fratelli Tutti,” (“On Fraternity and Social Friendship,” published on October 3, 2020) calls us to become global people. The title is from an admonition of St. Francis who called everyone to see each other as brothers and sisters in a kind of global friendship. The Pope’s letter was written during the pandemic, which set a new urgency to his call, that we can no longer live in isolation but must all see ourselves as part of the global human family, “brothers and sisters all.”
In his document, Pope Francis reflects on the Good Samaritan parable as a way for all of us to live—with utmost concern and compassion for those in need, for the suffering and the poor. He calls each of us to have “a heart open to the whole world,” to develop “a better kind of politics” aimed at serving the whole human race, and to practice “proactive peacemaking,” so that we might abolish war itself, the death penalty, poverty and violence.
You can read the document online for free at:
We are pleased to welcome Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, president of Pax Christi USA, to speak on this great call to peace. As you may know, Pax Christi USA is part of Pax Christi International, the official Catholic peace movement. You can visit them at www.paxchristiusa.org and www.paxchristi.net.
Bishop John Stowe was born April 15, 1966 in Amherst, Ohio. After a year of community college, he joined the formation program for the Conventual Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Consolation at St. Bonaventure Friary in St. Louis, MO. During the time of his candidacy, he began studies in philosophy and history at St. Louis University and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in each in 1990, after an interruption for his novitiate. He subsequently earned a Masters in Divinity and a Licentiate in Church History from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA (where he studied with John Dear).
Bishop John made his solemn vows on August 1, 1992, and was ordained to the priesthood on September 16, 1995. He served in Texas as a pastor, Moderator of the Curia, and eventually as Chancellor for the Diocese of El Paso. In 2010, he was elected Vicar Provincial of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation and became Pastor and Rector of the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, OH. On March 12, 2015, Pope Francis named him the third Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky. Please join us as Bishop John, a Franciscan bishop, reflects on Pope Francis’ call to proactive peacemaking!
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after the zoom link is sent out.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“100 Years of Philip Berrigan: Remembering, Honoring and Motivating”
with Frida Berrigan
May 6, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Philip Berrigan, along with his brother Daniel, was one of the giant peacemakers of the twentieth century. A former Josephite priest, he spent his life protesting the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons. In October, 1967, he was arrested as part of the Baltimore Four for pouring blood on draft files. Then on May 17, 1968, he was part of the Catonsville Nine which poured homemade napalm to burn draft files. He spent several years in prison, later married Elizabeth McAlister, founded Jonah House, a community of resistance in Baltimore, and then founded the Plowshares movement.
On September 9, 1980, Phil, Dan and the Plowshares 8 hammered on unarmed nuclear nose cones in King of Prussia, PA. He later did four more Plowshares action, including the Pax Christi-Spirit of Life Plowshares action with John Dear in 1993. Phil spent over 11 years of his life in prison for nonviolent civil disobedience. Phil authored several books and hundreds of articles; was nominated for the Nobel peace prize, and was featured on the cover of TIME magazine. He died on December 6, 2002.
This year, on October 5th, 2023, marks the 100th anniversary of Philip Berrigan’s birth. To begin the celebrations, the Beatitudes Center is pleased to welcome Phil’s daughter Frida Berrigan, a community activist and urban gardener who lives in New London, CT with her husband, three kids and four chickens. Frida is the author of It Runs In the Family: On Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood (OR Books, 2015). Her writing appears regularly at TomDispath.com and WagingNonviolence.org. She will reflect with us on the life and lessons of her father, Philip Berrigan. Please join us!
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Following the Nonviolent Jesus in a ‘Pro-Rich, Pro-War, Pro-U.S. Empire’ Church,”
with Frank Cordaro
Saturday, June 3, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
How do we follow the nonviolent Jesus and his Beatitude way of life, especially when so many Catholics and fellow Christians across the country seem to support wealth, war and the U.S. empire? This is a question we all need to grapple with. What does discipleship to the nonviolent Jesus look like for those of us living in the U.S.?
Fortunately, we have many saints in our own history to help us follow the nonviolent Jesus, such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, Cesar Chavez, and Jean Donovan.
Long time peace activist and former Catholic priest Frank Cordaro has been asking this question for decades, and will join us on June 3rd to reflect on his own journey and some lessons for all of us that we might better follow Jesus in these days.
Frank Cordaro is the cofounder of the Des Moines Catholic Worker. Started in 1976, it is an ecumenical, interfaith, nonviolent, anarchist Catholic Worker community living in voluntary poverty and intentional community which serves the poor and needy.
Frank has spent six years in jail for nonviolence civil disobedience actions over the years, including eight separate six month sentences for “crossing the line” at Offutt Air Force Base. He participated in the May 1997 Gods of Metal plowshares witness when he and four others hammered on a B52 fighter bomber at Andrews Air Force Base.
Frank believes that any fair reading of the New Testament leads to the conclusion that Jesus and his followers were not ‘pro rich, pro war, or pro Roman Empire,’ that his commandment to “love your enemies” means we can’t kill them, and that the Gospel demands that we do the works of mercy (Matt. 25)—feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and care for the sick and imprisoned as a requirement for discipleship. He will share his faith journey from his college years when he sought a personal relationship with Jesus to living a life of steadfast nonviolent resistance to the U.S. empire and to his decades of service to the poor through the Catholic Worker community.
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Following the Nonviolent Jesus and Serving Creation in a Time of Climate Catastrophe” with Larry Rasmussen
June 17, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Every day we see the ravages of climate chaos all around us in massive rain storms and flooding, blizzards, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts, and the hottest years ever. How do we follow the nonviolent Jesus and his Beatitude way of life, and serve creation, in this time of catastrophic climate change?
To help us with the reality of climate catastrophe, we will welcome one of the original and greatest environmental theologians in the world, Larry Rasmussen, to talk about “Following the Nonviolent Jesus and Serving Creation in a Time of Climate Catastrophe.”
Larry Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City. His new book is The Planet You Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren When Uncertainty’s a Sure Thing (Broadleaf Books, 2022). There he asks “What kind of planet do our children and grandchildren have a right to expect from us?”
His 2013 book, Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key (Oxford University Press), received the Nautilus Gold Prize for Ecology/Environment and the Nautilus Grand Prize for best 2014 book overall. An earlier volume, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Orbis Books, 1996), won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion of 1997.
Larry Rasmussen served as a member of the Science, Ethics, and Religion Advisory Committee of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and was a recipient of a Henry Luce Fellowship in Theology, 1998-99, the Burnice Fjellman Award for Distinguished Christian Ministries in Higher Education, the Joseph Sittler Award for Outstanding Leadership in Theological Education, and the UNITAS (Distinguished Alumnus) Award from Union Theological Seminary, New York.
From 1990-2000 he served as co-moderator of the World Council of Churches unit, Justice, Peace, Creation. He was the organizer of the decade project on Earth-Honoring Faith at Ghost Ranch, 2008 – 2017. In the Spring Semester 2018 he was guest professor at Union Theological Seminary and Yale University Divinity School. In the summer of 2019 he taught in Cambridge University, England. In 2021 he was granted the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Christian Ethics. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For information, see: www.larrywrites.info
Please join us, and share the program with friends and fellow churchgoers.
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“No Retiring from the Struggle!—Third Act and the Effort to Mobilize ‘Experienced Americans’ to Fight Climate Change” with Bill McKibben
Saturday, June 24, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Bill McKibben is one of the world’s leading environmentalists, and it is a great blessing to welcome him to the Beatitudes Center.
His 1989 book, “The End of Nature” was one of the first major books to address climate change and helped raise global awareness. He is the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont; a contributing writer to “The New Yorker,” “Rolling Stone,” and “Sojourners;” and founder of the first global grassroots climate campaign, www.350.org and the founder of the new organization, www.thirdact.org about mobilizing Americans over sixty to continue to work to fight climate change.
In 2014, Bill McKibben was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the “alternative” Nobel in the Swedish Parliament. He has been awarded the Gandhi Peace Award, and 19 honorary degrees from colleges and universities. He has written over a dozen best-selling books including, “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?” and most recently, “The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.”
In 2009, Bill and 350.org led the largest global protest against environmental destruction with some 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries. In 2011 and 2012, he led the environmental campaign against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project; he is also a key advisor to Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays movement.
In 2009, Foreign Policy magazine named him to its inaugural list of the 100 most important global thinkers, and MSN named him one of the dozen most influential people on the planet. In 2010, the Boston Globe called him “the nation’s leading environmentalist,” and TIME magazine described him as “the world’s best green journalist.”
In January, 2023, Bill was featured in the New York Times about his new organization, www.thirdact.org which seeks to mobilize all those over 60 in the US in the fight against climate change. He will speak to us about what we all can do to help support and build the global grassroots movement to protect Mother Earth and fight fossil fuels and all environmental destruction.
Please mark your calendars and sign up now to spend time on June 24th with this great thinker, activist, environmental leader and peacemaker. And tell all your friends and relatives. Let’s get a huge crowd to hear Bill. (We recommend that you read one of his books and study www.thirdact.org before the event.)
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Wade in the Water: Following the Nonviolent Jesus Means Pursuing Equality and Justice” with Rev. Joseph Brown
Saturday, July 15, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
In recent years, we’ve been horrified by the growing racism and brutal police killings of so many unarmed African Americans, such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tyre Nichols. Today, Black Lives Matter, the largest grassroots nonviolent movement in U.S. history, continues to demand an end to racism, segregation, and police brutality.
To reflect with us on racism and the Gospel call for justice and equality, we welcome Rev. Joseph Brown, S.J., a longtime teacher of justice and peace. A native of East St. Louis, Illinois, and a Jesuit, Father Brown has graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University (The Writing Seminars, 1969) and a doctorate from Yale University (1983, Afro-American Studies; 1984, American Studies). He has taught at Creighton University, the University of Virginia, Xavier University (where he was the Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, 1991-94), and at Southern Illinois University Carbondale – where he is a Professor in the Africana Studies Department. In addition to having been National Black Catholic Congress Liturgist in 1992 (New Orleans) and 2002 (Chicago), he has published many articles in African American literary criticism and cultural studies. See his blog, “The Sankofa Muse”: http://sankofamuse.blogspot.com/
He is the author of: “Accidental Grace” (Callaloo Poetry Series; 1986); “A Retreat with Thea Bowman and Bede Abram: Leaning on the Lord” (1997); “To Stand on the Rock: Meditations on Black Catholic Identity” (1996); “Sweet, Sweet Spirit: Prayer Services in the Black Catholic Tradition” (2006); and “The Sun Whispers, Wait: New and Collected Poems” (Brown Turtle Press; 2009).
“What is the horizon of Justice?” he asks. “How can we see ‘by the eyes of faith’? How does our heart know how to follow the vision of faith? To radically claim participation in the New Covenant as Jesus announced it, we must all understand what justice requires.” Fr. Brown will use verses from old African American spirituals to help us unpack the vision of justice and racial equality—starting with the great hymn, “Wade in the Water.”
“Wade in the water,
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water,
God is gonna trouble these waters”
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Blessed Are the Peacemakers” with Medea Benjamin
Saturday, July 29, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Medea Benjamin is one of the leading peacemakers, peace activists, organizers and movement leaders in the nation, if not the world. She is the co-founder of the women-led peace organization, CODEPINK (visit www.codepink.org) and Global Exchange (visit www.globalexchange.org). She also founded the Peace In Ukraine Coalition; Unfreeze Afghanistan (which advocates for the returning the $7 billion of Afghan funds frozen in U.S. banks); and ACERE, the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect.
Medea has been an advocate for peace and social justice full time for fifty years. New York Newsday describes her as “one of America’s most committed—and most effective—fights for human rights.” The Los Angeles Times calls her “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement.” She was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women around the world who work for peace.
Medea is the author of ten books, including: Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control; Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection; and Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Recently, she coauthored with Nicolas Davies, War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. She has written extensively for Salon, Common Dreams, The Progressive, and The Hill.
Medea Benjamin will discuss the issues and challenges of peacemaking today, including the war on Ukraine; drone warfare; nuclear weapons; the U.S. military budget and economy; Afghanistan and Iraq; and latest strategies and plans for anti-war organizing. Please study www.codepink.org and bring your questions for Medea so together we can renew our work for disarmament and peace in this world of permanent war, that we might be who we are called to be: blessed peacemakers.
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Following the Nonviolent Jesus in Palestine,” with Zoughbi Zoughbi
Saturday, August 12, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Zoughbi Zoughbi is one of the world’s great leaders of Christian nonviolence and a world reknown speaker, activist, nonviolence trainer, organizer, and writer. He is currently the president of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR, the oldest peace group in the world, see www.ifor.org) and the founder and director of the Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center in Bethlehem, Palestine, known by the name “Wi’am,” the Arabic word meaning, “Cordial Relationships.” (Please visit their website, www.alaslah.org)
Zoughbi has lived and worked for peace in Bethlehem his entire life. At the Wi’am Center, he and his team offer peaceful mediation, nonviolence training, and psycho-social counseling to help resolve community disputes and alleviate the suffering of the people. Their work includes a trauma-coping program for children, leadership training for women, ending community violence, trying to eliminate violence against women and children, and nonviolence education programs.
“The Israeli-imposed closure of Jerusalem and restrictions on movement in the West Bank, including Jerusalem and Gaza, create enormous hardships in Palestinian society,” Zoughbi writes. “The unemployment rate varies depending on the severity of the closure. With Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land to build settlements and to construct the infamous Wall, Palestinians have less and less land on which to live and work. More and more, people lack the means to meet the basic needs of their families, and thus the complicated situation feeds the cycle of violence on every level of society. As a result, we face a growing demand for the work of conflict transformation, mediation and reconciliation, and training in different fields such as human rights, democracy, negotiation, and cultural dialogue. The work of Wi’am is on the ground, down to earth with people, as we address the urgent needs of Palestinians. As a staff, we work on Kairos time and not chronos, meaning we are available when we are needed rather than only on a schedule, and it is informed by our personal experiences, as we seek to live with dignity as human beings. We create hope in times of fear, extremism, anxiety, hopelessness, and helplessness. We try to equip our people with steadfastness, resilience and perseverance.”
“The Israeli occupation has created an alarming deterioration of political, economic, environmental, psychological status and social structures,” Zoughbi writes. “But even in the midst of this deterioration, I experience great joy in responding to people’s needs and enhancing their hopes.”
Wi’am was honored with the 2010 Peacebuilding Award in the World Vision International Peace Prize competition for “successfully integrating traditional Palestinian mediation customs with innovative academic models of conflict analysis to address the very difficult circumstances of Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. In 1993, Zoughbi was awarded the International Peacemaker Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Zoughbi has written and edited articles, booklets and books on justice, peace and reconciliation and also on oral history and didactic stories. He has been involved with the Kairos Palestine document, a Christian statement calling for justice and peace in the Middle East since its inception (please read it before the zoom at: www.kairospalestine.ps) . He first met John Dear in 1989, and has worked with him and hosted him in Palestine many times over the decades. Please join us!
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Dr. Cornel West in Conversation with Fr. John Dear”
September 9, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Dr. Cornel West is one of the leading public intellectuals in the U.S. A philosopher, theologian, activist, and social critic, he has taught at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton, and is currently the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Dr. West is the author of many books, including his classic best-sellers, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, as well as his memoir: Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. He is widely featured on TV, radio and film, such as “Democracy Now” and “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and continues to speak out prophetically for racial justice and peace. His edited collection The Radical King helps explain Martin Luther King, Jr’s. radical message of justice, nonviolence and peace.
Dr. West will have a conversation with John Dear about justice, peace and nonviolence. Please join us!
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: On Engaged Contemplation” with Rev. Adam Bucko
September 23, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Rev. Adam Bucko has taught engaged contemplation for two decades and co-authored The New Monasticism with Rory McEntee, and Occupy Spirituality with Matthew Fox. After fifteen years working among homeless and LGBTQ youth in New York City, he was ordained a priest in the Episcopal church and currently serves as a director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination (www.spiritualimagination.org) at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York.
He lives in New York with his partner, Kaira Jewel Lingo, a Buddhist teacher and former nun in the community of Thich Nhat Hanh. Together they lead the Buddhist-Christian Community for Meditation and Action. To learn more, visit www.adambucko.com
Adam will reflect on his new book, Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged in Contemplation, which invites us to become “contemplative activists” who live at the intersection of working for justice while practice contemplation. You may want to get the book before the zoom session (Orbis Books, 2023).
“As you move toward a life of personal and political holiness,” he writes in the conclusion, “may your journey be blessed and may your life and presence remind those around you of God’s presence. Deepening your connection to God, in you and around you, do not be afraid to feel the love, the joy and also the pain that are present. Don’t be afraid to have a heart and to risk breaking your heart. Feel into it all and know that every time you are touching the pain, you are touching the sacred wound of God—God who is always accompanying us and guiding us, God who is suffering with us, God who is moving us toward healing and liberation, God whose life-giving love and justice will one day be ‘all in all.'”
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Registration is limited
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Hungry and Thirsty for Racial Healing: A New Way to See the Journey” with Dr. Catherine Meeks
October 14, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Dr. Catherine Meeks is one of the world’s leading Christian voices for racial healing. In honor of her lifetime work, last year she was awarded the President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement and Service Award at the White House. Georgia Trend Magazine last year called her one of the 500 women to watch in Georgia. A retired professor, she is currently the Executive Director of Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta, Georgia where she organizes and holds spiritual retreats and workshops on a variety of wellness and spirituality issues, and offers courses on Jungian Psychology, racial diversity, cultural issues, and spiritual development locally, nationally and internationally. Please visit: www.centerforracialhealing.org
Dr. Meeks received her doctorate from Emory University, where she focused on “Jungian Psychology, African and African American Women’s Literature,” with her dissertation on Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. She taught African American Studies at Mercer University for 25 years with an interdisciplinary approach to issues of race, gender and class. Then she worked for the Mayor of Macon, GA, leading his Youth Violence Task Force, and then taught for nine years at Wesleyan College as the Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies.
She has served as the founding Director of the Lane Center for Community Engagement and Service at Wesleyan College, and Director of Aunt Maggie’s Kitchen Table, a family resource center located in a public housing facility, serving an underserved population and winner of the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Award for Community and Campus Partnership. She has served as an organizer of “Standing on Their Shoulders: A Celebration of the Wisdom of African American Women,” a nine-year project which identified and honored 100 African American Women and published a coffee table book highlighting their lives. She was a founding member of the Center for Racial Understanding, organizer of city-wide marches against violence and community wellness fairs. She is the author of eight books and a bi-weekly column in the Macon Telegraph.
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available!
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after the zoom link is sent out.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Peacemaking and Creation Spirituality Today” with Rev. Matthew Fox
November 11, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Rev. Matthew Fox is one of the most well-known Christian authors and spiritual teachers in the world today. A former Catholic priest, he was silenced under Pope John Paul II for speaking out, left the Dominicans and became an Episcopal priest. He has lectured around the world, and founded the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California, which closed in 2007. He has since taught at Stanford University, Vancouver School of Theology, Association for Transpersonal Psychology, the California Institute of Integral Studies, Schumacher College, the Findhorn Foundation, and the Omega Institute, among other places.
Rev. Matthew Fox is the author of thirty-seven books, including best-sellers such as: Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, A Spirituality Named Compassion, The Reinvention of Work, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, Christian Mystics and The Pope’s War. He has contributed much to the rediscovery of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas as pre-modern mystics and prophets. Fox holds a doctorate in the history and theology of spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. His latest books are Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God; Stations of the Cosmic Christ; and The Lotus & the Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity.
In 2005, when Cardinal Ratzinger was made pope, Fox went to Martin Luther’s church in Wittenberg, Germany and pounded 95 contemporary theses at the door to call people to a New Reformation. Six years later, after documenting 30 years of Vatican corruption in the reigns of John Paul II and Benedict VI in The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled The Church And How It Can Be Saved, Fox repeated his protest, nailing his 95 Theses outside of the Roman basilica of Cardinal Law, who covered up sexual abuses committed by more than 90 priests in his archdiocese.
More recently Fox, along with Skylar Wilson and Jennifer Listug, launched a new vision in the Order of the Sacred Earth: both a book and a new spiritual order. The OSE is a community and movement of people of varied belief systems (or non-belief systems) who share one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
He has been interviewed in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, Yoga Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, New Age Journal, Utne Reader, Spirituality and Health, Tikkun, Science of Mind, Chicago Tribune, Toronto Star, Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, The Independent (London), The Guardian, YES! Magazine, and Caduceus Journal, as well as The Today Show, Democracy Underground, The Young Turks, the BBC and Brazilian, Canadian and Italian television.
In preparation for this important session with Rev. Matthew Fox, please study his website, www.matthewfox.org and the new collection, “Matthew Fox: Essential Writings” (Orbis Books).
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available!
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after Zoom link is issued.
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
“Thomas Merton and the Advent Message of Prayer, Peace & Hope” with Jonathan Montaldo
December 9, 2023
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Jonathan Montaldo is a writer, editor, retreat presenter and longtime teacher of Thomas Merton. He will reflect on Merton’s teachings and legacy as a “contemplative mentor” for those doing inner work to become persons who make peace and work for justice.
Jonathan served as director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, in Louisville, Kentucky, the official archive of the writer’s legacy, from 1998 -2001. He was Associate Director (2006-2009) for the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living in Louisville, for which he created “Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton,” a ten-booklet resource for small group dialogue. He served, in tandem, as the director of Bethany Spring, the Merton Institute’s Retreat Center one mile from Merton’s Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey.
He edited “A Year with Thomas Merton;” “Dialogues with Silence: Merton’s Prayers & Drawings;” “Choosing to Love the World,” and “Thomas Merton in His Own Words.” He was principal editor of “The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals” with Brother Patrick Hart of Gethsemani Abbey. He edited the second volume of Merton’s private journals, published in seven volumes by HarperCollins, under the title “Entering the Silence (1945-1959).”
Jonathan has narrated five audiobooks of Merton’s work: New Seeds of Contemplation, No Man Is An Island, Thoughts in Solitude, Contemplative Prayer, and The Intimate Merton. He narrated “Praying with Thomas Merton,” a two-set CD with the book’s editor and musician Dr. Kathleen Deignan of Iona College. He also served as Co-General Editor with publisher Gray Henry of Fons Vitae Publishing in Louisville, Kentucky for the Merton series in nine volumes, “Thomas Merton and World Religions.” He also edited Fons Vitae’s “We Are Already One: Reflections on Thomas Merton’s Centenary, 2015.”
His current projects include a play on Thomas Merton, “Litter,” and a manuscript, “Contemplative Mentoring: Reading Thomas Merton’s Journals for Self-Development in Solitude or Community.” He is a monthly contributing writer for the online English edition of the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Join us!
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available!
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after the zoom link is sent out. If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at:
beatitudescentermb@gmail.com See you then!
If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at: beatitudescentermb@gmail.com Join us!
To ask about scholarships, please write to beatitudescentermb@gmail.com
with Jonathan Eig, author of “King: A Life”
Saturday, January 13, 2024
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Last summer, the first full biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. in many decades was published. King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig, mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life of Martin Luther King. I urge everyone to get it and study it!
King: A Life is the first book to include recently declassified FBI files, as well as the unpublished diaries and writings of some of his closest friends and associates. In this revelatory new portrait of the Civil Rights leader, preacher and teacher of Gospel nonviolence, we get an intimate view of his courageous but sometimes emotionally troubled life. As Eig writes, he demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. Eig casts “fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as King’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows King from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr. In this landmark biography, Eig gives us a King for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.” Join us!
Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of Ali: A Life, winner of a 2018 PEN America Literary Award and a finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize. He also served as a senior consulting producer for the PBS series Muhammad Ali. His first book, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, won the Casey Award. Eig’s books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have been listed among the best of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Chicago with his wife and children.
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available!
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after the zoom link is sent out. If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at:
beatitudescentermb@gmail.com See you then!
“Mary Lou Kownacki’s Spirituality of Nonviolence” with Anne McCarthy
Saturday, February 10, 2024
11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
Benedictine Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, who died in early 2023, served as one of the early leaders of Pax Christi USA and became a teacher of nonviolence and friend to many of us. One friend called her “the mother of the spirituality of nonviolence.”
In her honor, I’ve invited our friend, Benedictine Sister Anne McCarthy from Erie, PA, another former director of Pax Christi USA, to reflect with us on Mary Lou’s spirituality of nonviolence.
For Mary Lou, a spirituality of nonviolence meant a life of public service for the poor and needy, as well as prophetic speaking against the structures of violence, injustice and war, and steadfast movement organizing in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King to create a new culture of nonviolence—but also then a whole other world of inner and interpersonal nonviolence, which she learned from her Benedictine tradition.
Mary Lou practiced faithful, devout prayer and contemplation every day of her life, which rooted and grounded her peacemaking work in the God of peace. She taught, organized, envisioned new projects, gave speeches, held countless meetings and zooms with “Monasteries of the Heart,” while serving inner-city kids and their mothers in Erie. A spirituality of nonviolence for her meant that she was always building community, forming friendships, and making life easier and better for everyone everywhere. It was as simple—and as difficult—as that.
Mary Lou’s teachings a basic every day spirituality of nonviolence: reverence and loving kindness toward every human being and all creation; forgiveness toward everyone who ever hurt you and healing and reconciliation with broken relationships; pondering God as unconditional love and infinite mercy; reliance on God with steadfast service to the poor and needy; pitching in to help the grassroots movements for justice, equality, disarmament and creation; building good friendships and widening the beloved community in everything you do; living in the present moment of God’s peace; and cultivating wonder, beauty, gratitude and joy so that you are always on the side of resurrection.
She was clear too: never harm another human being ever again. Instead, try to love yourself and every human being, and show that love in concrete deeds, especially toward those being marginalized or killed by our nation. Speak out publicly for justice and disarmament; don’t give up on peace and justice work; and make every day a living prayer for peace. Take risks for justice and peace, and envision new ways to build a culture of nonviolence. Keep at it till the end.
Her spirituality of nonviolence was not overly pious, but it was seriously practical. This is where her Benedictine monasticism flavored her approach to nonviolence so that her pursuit of nonviolence led to new projects, programs, movements and visions that actually helped people. Join us as Sr. Anne McCarthy reflects on the spirituality and practice of Gospel nonviolence. She writes, “The feast of St Scholastica is a perfect time to reflect on Mary Lou Kownacki, who, above all, loved monastic life.”
This session will last an hour and a half; Cost: $30. Scholarships are available!
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after the zoom link is sent out. If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at:
beatitudescentermb@gmail.com See you then!
“The Gospel of Peace: Matthew, Mark and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence.”
A Three Week Lenten Series with John Dear
Wednesday, February 21. Session #1 on Matthew.
Wednesday, February 28. Session #2 on Mark.
Wednesday, March 6. Session #3 on Luke.
Each session will be at:
4:00 pm Pacific/5 pm Mountain/ 6 pm Central/7 pm Eastern
During this three week Lenten class, John Dear will discuss his new book, his life’s work: “The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence” (Orbis). It is the first ever commentary on the Synoptic Gospels from the perspective of active nonviolence, in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King.
During these three zoom sessions, John will address basic themes of nonviolence in each of the synoptic Gospels, pointing out Jesus’ practice and teachings on nonviolence, peace and universal love. He will present Jesus like Gandhi and Dr. King—nonviolent to the core, a disarming, healing presence toward those in need and a revolutionary disrupter of the unjust status quo and a political threat to the ruling authorities who succeed in killing him, only to push Jesus to the heights of nonviolence through his death and resurrection. It is recommended that you get the book (which will be available from Orbis Books by early November, 2023) and bring your questions. Participants of this zoom program will be able to order the book at a big discount. While the book costs $34, Beatitudes Center zoom participants can get copies at the special discount rate of $20 each. Call Orbis Books, 1-800-258-5838, order a copy (or copies) and give them the special promo code: JDT.
The three classes will be as follows:
Wednesday, Feb. 21. Session #1 on Matthew.
Wednesday, Feb. 28. Session #2 on Mark.
Wednesday, March 6. Session #3 on Luke.
Each session will be at:
4:00 Pacific/5 pm Mountain/ 6 pm Central/7 pm Eastern
Registration for all three sessions costs $75.
Scholarships are available.
Each session will last an hour and a half.
You will be sent a zoom link for the event on the Wednesday before the event. Please be on the lookout for it!
You will receive a recording of the event two days after it, in case you were not able to attend the live program, or want to watch it again.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds will not be honored after the zoom link is sent out. If you have any questions, please email Kassandra at:
beatitudescentermb@gmail.com See you then!
***
Here are some endorsements of the book:
“John Dear is one of the few towering figures in the Christian nonviolent freedom and peace movement in our time! This powerful book should not be missed!” —Cornel West
“No living person has done more to root Jesus’ message of nonviolence and peace in scripture than John Dear. Follow John’s lead through Matthew, Mark and Luke and, like those disciples on the Emmaus Way, your heart will be set afire with excitement to tell others the Good News!” –Wes Howard-Brook
“Prepare to be inspired, as John Dear guides you on a journey into the nonviolent revolution grounded in Jesus and his Way of Love. Along the way, you will encounter anew the steadfast fearlessness of figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Oscar Romero…and find yourself ready to join them in this holy work.” –The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry,
Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church
“Fr. John Dear’s passion for peace illumines every page of this book. Recognizing the Beatitudes and the Sermon of the Mount as a blueprint for the life of Christ, John Dear demonstrates how the gospels are a blueprint for peace, inviting believer and nonbeliever alike to follow the Prince of Peace by living the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. For all who are interested in the Gospel vision of peace and nonviolence, and who have been moved by John Dear’s lifelong ministry of peace building, this book is a must read.” –Most Rev. Archbishop John Wester, Archdiocese of Santa Fe, NM
“Each time I consult this magnificent commentary for insight into a particular gospel passage, I am drawn further into the nonviolent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. As John Dear convincingly demonstrates, Jesus was their inspiration. The Gospel of Peace lovingly confronts us all with what it means to follow Jesus in all dimensions of life. It is the master class on Christian discipleship.” –The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.
“John Dear is an authentic follower of Christ whose life as a Christian and priest has gotten him arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience 85 times. His witness is not unlike that of Paul and other early Christians who dared to speak truth to the Roman empire. In this brilliant and very readable book, he offers a stunningly fresh interpretation of three gospels that puts Jesus’ basic message of love, justice, and the beatitudes as central to his teaching—which it was. Just reading his treatment of Mary as the contemplative, active and prophetic nonviolent model that she was in Luke’s gospel, is cause enough to study and celebrate this book. Bede Griffiths, a Catholic monk who lived in India for over fifty years, said that Gandhi ‘applies Jesus’ teachings to social and political life in a way which no one before him had done, making the beatitudes a matter of practical concern few Christians did before him.’ Here, in the spirit of his nonviolent mentor Gandhi, John Dear does the same. This book is a masterpiece opening the door anew to the revolutionary Good News of Jesus, his life, death and teachings.”—Rev. Matthew Fox, author and teacher
Fr. John Dear’s commentary on the synoptic gospels from the perspective of nonviolence is needed especially now. With the Third World War being fought piecemeal as our Holy Father Pope Francis regularly reminds us, and the violence of handguns and assault weapons daily taking the lives of God’s children in the U.S., we Christians need to be reminded that the Gospel of Jesus is about peace. Father John Dear’s book helps us reflect on Jesus the Peacemaker and assists us in becoming blessed peacemakers ourselves.”
–Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., Bishop of Lexington, President of Pax Christi USA
“The Gospel of Peace is a thoughtful, deeply challenging reflection on the synoptic Gospels that captures the complexity, depth and nuances of nonviolence in the word and witness of Jesus. Lifting up the unique character of each evangelist’s version of the story, The Gospel of Peace makes clear the many contemporary applications of Gospel nonviolence on the way to just peace. It will be a valuable resource for all who seek to understand and to live the nonviolence that Jesus taught.” –Marie Dennis, Pax Christi International and Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
“Reading the Gospels in jail can alter one’s hermeneutic. Such a location frees your perspective. Witness what’s been elicited here, a spiritual thread so long, so thoroughgoing, so relentless. John Dear has pulled that thread, producing a resource for mission and movement much overdue. Following the best of scholarship, along with the sighted vision of Gandhi and King, he brings into focus the gospel of nonviolence embedded within the Gospels Synoptic – too long unseen, unsought, unwelcome, and above all, unimagined – now visible and in the light. Look and see. It’s the remedy we need to heal our history and transform what’s to come. Thanks be!” –Bill Wylie-Kellermann, editor, Keeper of the Word: The Selected Writings of William Stringfellow
