As we move through together in this mysterious challenging journey, Dominican Center would like to stay in presence. We hope by offering these experiences you will find pearls of strength, calm, and peace. Be well and may God's wisdom guide you and God's love embrace you.

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Susan Duesbery, a Dominican Center presenter and intuitive counselor, spiritual coach, and energy therapist, recently recorded a series of guided meditations you may find helpful in soothing and easing the stress and anxiety of your day-to-day life during these unsettling times.

Among Susan's offerings are:

• Release, Relax, Renew
• Befriending Your Inner Child
• Inner Wisdom Meditation
• Meditation for Wholeness
• Letting Go at the Beach
• Rainforest Release
• Yoga Nidra

Meditations are available for free on Susan's website

Read Susan's recent blog post, Spiritual Bypassing in the Time of COVID-19

As we move through together in this mysterious challenging journey, Dominican Center would like to stay in presence. We hope by offering these experiences you will find pearls of strength, calm, and peace. Be well and may God's wisdom guide you and God's love embrace you.

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Be with us for this special retreat with Meister Eckhart ~ Life Gives the Most Noble Lessons. Meister Eckhart is considered one of the truly great Dominican mystics and preachers. He offers a vision of God our world so needs today. Meister Eckhart was, as his disciple described him, a "man from whom God hid nothing."

If this child is born in you,
then you have such great joy
in every good deed done in the world
that this joy becomes permanent
and never changes...
cast out all grief
so that perpetual joy reigns in your heart.
- Meister Eckhart
Sermon 7 in Pfeiffer & Walsh

This retreat will be facilitated by Father Michael Demkovich, OP, a Dominican friar who has written on spirituality, theology, and Meister Eckhart for journals and books. He holds a PhD and a Pontifical Doctorate from the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Flanders, Belgium. From 1981-1986, Father Michael taught and worked in campus ministry at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids. Father Demkovich taught in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1991-1996 before becoming the founding director of the Dominican Ecclesial Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2009, he was named the Gerald Vann Visiting Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford. He served as president of the International Dominican Foundation and is currently serving in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe as the Episcopal Vicar for Doctrine and Life.

• The retreat will open with registration at 8:30 am with an invitation to enjoy coffee and a continental breakfast.
• The retreat program will begin at 9:00 am.
• Lunch is included in the registration fee.
• Very limited lodging is available at Dominican Center for an additional $50.00 per person per night. Please call Dominican Center at 616.514.3325 to make your reservation.

This retreat is a collaboration with the Eckhart Society.

Explore what it means to live in the presence of a loving God so you can see and hear the presence of God as you companion with others.

Do you feel a longing to deepen your faith? Continual spiritual formation expands our hearts and deepens our path to living more spiritually in this world. Spiritual Companioning deepens our sacred presence by examining how we listen to ourselves and others with our ears always attuned to the Spirit, compassionate and loving. Through this 9-month study, experience, learn processes and practices in contemplative listening, writing, and group sharing,

Are you ready to deepen your capacity to be present to yourself and to others with a discerning mind and heart? Are you ready to discover true peace as you learn to listen without judgment? This spiritual formation experience cultivates an understanding of how to listen and recognize the holy within the context of our lives and in the context of personal transformation, cultural traditions, societal changes, and global concerns. 

Dates
The Spiritual Companioning program meets Tuesdays, 6:00 - 9:00 pm

• September 15, 2020
• October 13, 2020
• November 10, 2020
• December 15, 2020
• January 12, 2021
• February 9, 2021
• March 9, 2021
• April 13, 2021
• May 11, 2021

Cost: $475/year, plus book fees

Prerequisite: Foundations in Spirituality

For more information, please visit Spiritual Companioning.

Catechist Certification
Many programs offered at Dominican Center may be taken for credit toward Catechist Certification for the Diocese of Grand Rapids. These programs have been assigned a Content Formation Dimension (CFD)  After attending the class in person, watching it live or as a video on demand, go to the Catechist Certification Credit Form.  Fill out the form and answer the reflection questions. The completed form needs to be printed and submitted to your parish Religious Education Director in your parish.

CFD:  Spirituality/Theology