Good morning, Prairiewoods Family! We are going virtual with our weekly Tuesday Prayer Experience Series. Please consider joining us via Zoom this Tuesday, March 31, from 11:30 a.m.–noon, as well as subsequent Tuesdays for the time being. This series offers an opportunity for us to pray together. We are blessed with many ways to pray, ranging…
I was moved by Sister Ann Jackson’s blog last week entitled “Coming Home.” What especially spoke to me was the stanza from the poem she shared by Jane Hooper as cited in Cynthia Bourgeault’s book The Wisdom Way of Knowing (p. 38–40). Please come home. Please come home INTO YOUR OWN BODY. Your own vessel, your…
In 2013 I completed the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, facilitated by Chris Klug and based on the model developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Today I continue to use many of the techniques I learned in that program and often refer to it as a life-enhancing experience.…
“I hear the drizzle of the rain Like a memory, it falls Soft and warm, continuing Tapping on my roof and walls …” (Kathy’s Song by Paul Simon, 1965) When in the ’60s Paul Simon penned these lyrics for his British soulmate, Kathy Chitty, life was in turmoil. Upheaval was everywhere and themes of…
As we at Prairiewoods focus on shifting our attention from the pandemic to #PanDeepening, we are looking at meditations, readings and activities that help us go deeper and get more centered within ourselves and in our God. In today’s PanDeepening, let’s slow down, quiet our minds and listen to the words of a gifted Celtic…
Every story has a beginning, even though there may be no exact moment we can point to and say, “Here is when the first seed was planted. This is where the story began.” This is true of Prairiewoods’ story. The beginning of Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center doesn’t rest in one specific moment in time; our…
This October we brought a taste of Celtic spirituality to our Prairiewoods calendar. Angie Pierce Jennings and I invited anyone who wished to join us in delving into the spirit of two writers: John Philip Newell and John O’Donohue, both magical with words and both steeped in the inheritance received from their Celtic ancestors. In…
Prairiewoods recently completed our eleventh annual year-long retreat called Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (SEEL). On the closing day in May, participants were invited to reflect and write about their experiences with God through SEEL. Here is the loving, awe-filled prayer from one participant: O Creator of the majestic universe! Out of nothing you loved…
Prairiewoods is sponsored by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA), a Catholic community in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The FSPA community has practiced perpetual adoration (or round-the-clock prayer) since Aug. 1, 1878. For more than 140 years, at least two people have been praying day and night before the Blessed Sacrament. Nearly 20,000 prayer requests are…
A direct encounter with Jesus in a Prairiewoods tree taught me how God shares life with each of us individually. During a 2015 Prairiewoods retreat called “Beauty is the Path to God’s Life,” led by Father John Quigley, OSF, I discovered some answers to questions I had about reconciling suffering and hardship. Honestly, the world…