A Toolkit for Spiritual Survival

May 25, 2019

How do we retain balance, enthusiasm, and sanity in a time when we are being bombarded by stimuli every waking hour of our day?

For the inaugural retreat of the new Centre for Christian Engagement, Fr. Ronald Roheiser and Dr. Michael Higgins have been invited to Vancouver to explore how we can create a toolkit for spiritual survival in an increasingly busy and demanding world. This open retreat includes two seminars on spirituality.

A Spirituality for Steadiness and Sanity – Keeping Sabbath and Opening our Lives to God – Keeping Acedia, Anxiety, and Unsteadiness at Bay

What are some key Christian practices that can help keep us steady? How do we “rest” as God rested on the Seventh Day? How do we pray when everything inside of us seems to militate against prayer? Reflections on what wears us down and what builds us up.

Silence and Contemplation: Required Tools for Spiritual Survival

We live in a time of manic flux, institutional dissolution, widely dispersed misinformation, and if that weren’t enough, a false sense of community pervades our culture. How do we cope? Where do we look for sustenance and hope? How do we create a toolkit for spiritual survival? We have a guide, the guide, in Thomas Merton.

Date and Time: Saturday, May 25, 2019 – 1:30-4:30pm

Location: St. Mark’s College at UBC, 5935 Iona Drive, Vancouver

Cost: $25.00 ($12.00 student rate)

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This event is sponsored by St. Mark’s and City In Focus


About the Presenters

Dr. Michael W. Higgins

Michael W. Higgins, a native Torontonian, is an author, scholar, Vatican Affairs Specialist for The Globe and Mail, Papal Commentator for the CTV Network, educator, CBC Radio documentarian, columnist, and former senior academic administrator.

He has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of two Canadian Catholic universities, St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, and as Vice-President for Mission and Catholic Identity at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

He is currently Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University.
He has edited, co-authored and authored scores of books including The Jesuit Mystique, Power and Peril: The Catholic Church at the Crossroads, Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton, The Muted Voice: Religion and the Media, Stalking the Holy: The Pursuit of Saint-Making, Suffer the Children Unto Me: An Open Inquiry Into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal, Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Unquiet Monk: Thomas Merton’s Questing Faith, Jean Vanier: Logician of the Heart. Several of these books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, many have won awards and been national bestsellers.

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser

Ronald Rolheiser, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He is a community-builder, lecturer, and writer. His books are popular throughout the English-speaking world and have now been translated into many languages. His weekly column is carried by more than 80 newspapers worldwide. Prior to this present position, he taught theology and philosophy at Newman Theological College in Edmonton, Alberta, for 16 years, served as Provincial Superior of his Oblate Province for six years, and served on the General Council for the Oblates in Rome for six years. He has been at Oblate School of theology since 2005.

www.ronrolheiser.com 

Contact

For more information, please contact Yujin Han.

E: [email protected]

T: 604-822-5358