The Northeast Guild for Spiritual Formation, an ecumenical community that seeks to encourage and support all who desire growth and deepening in their spiritual lives, is hosting a Wisdom Weekend, Sept. 9 - 11 with Christopher Pramuk, Ph.D. This Wisdom Weekend is entitled "The Heart of Wisdom in Thomas Merton's Prayer" and will be held at St. Andrew By the Lake Episcopal Church and The Alcyon Center in Seal Cove.
Pramuk is the recipient of the Catholic Theological Society of America's 2009 Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award. The author of two books: "Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton" and "Surviving the Search: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Love," Dr. Pramuk will be offering two programs over the course of the weekend. The first on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. is based on Dr. Pramuk's book of the same title. This Day of Teaching offers a sustained meditation on the life and writings of Trappist monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton. With special attention to Merton's deepening realization of Christ as Wisdom-Sophia, and drawing freely from Merton's journals and poetry, drawings and sketches, classic spiritual writings and theological essays, this Merton scholar, musician and theologian will guide us into the heart of Merton's prayer life while illuminating his enduring witness as a poet, prophet and theologian for the 21st century.
The retreat experience will be held on Saturday, Sept. 10, 9 a.m. through Sunday, September 11, 12 p.m. at The Alcyon Center. The retreat will expand on and deepen the above themes, including Merton's mystical-prophetic "turning to the world" during the last decade of his life, his growing capacity to give and receive love, his profoundly sacramental sense of God in the natural world, his struggles to balance solitude with solidarity, his thoughts on the revolution in the Catholic Church at Vatican II, and the myriad theological, cultural and interfaith influences that Merton intuitively received and wove together with astonishing beauty and clarity in his own writings, all culminating in the sublime prose poem "Hagia Sophia."
The cost for Friday's Day of Teaching is $50 and includes refreshments and snacks. Please bring your lunch. The cost for the retreat on Saturday and Sunday is $100.
At a separate cost, room and board are available at The Alcyon Center, www.alcyoncenter.org.
You may register for one or both programs. For more information and to register for programs, contact Eric Erickson at
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, 207-244-5168 or visit the Guild website at www.northeastguild.org.
