At Dominican Center, we believe we are prayer in action, and that connection, contemplation, and creativity will see us through these unsettling times and help us find and be in light. We invite you to share with the Dominican Center community your prayer in action and to feed our souls with that which feeds yours.

Here are some ways you may be finding light …

• Do you carry an image or mantra in your heart? How does that guide you throughout the day?
• Have you picked up your watercolors? What sparks your creativity?
• Are acts of service the way in which you pray?
• Will you create a pot of soup from ingredients in the back of your cupboard?  Share with us your new found love for home cooked meals.
• Did you FaceTime with your old college roommate last night and laugh so hard your sides still hurt today? How are you staying connected to your loved ones?
• Did you tip you face to the sun and take the spring air deep into your lungs because you can? What outdoor activities are you enjoying in the comfort of your back yard?
• Are you writing gratitude lists on the backs of envelopes? Who and What are you grateful for during this time?

We invite you to send to us how it is you pray your way through the days so you can stay in the light and in hope.

Please send your writings, photos, and related attachments to yramirez@dominicancenter.com

Read entries on our blog by clicking here

Dominican Center invites you to join us from your own sacred space to explore what staying in the light means to you during these days of shelter-in-place. Be in community with Dominican Center and others each Monday morning to quiet the world without and within. Begin the week cultivating light and renewing body, mind, and spirit.

Gatherings Held Via Zoom
By using the link below, you will enter the Dominican Center Zoom waiting space. No registration required.
Participants will be greeted around 10:25 am. Come early and please feel free to invite a friend or family member to join.

Be Still and Stay in the Light Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/98197085406

June 1: Stay in the Light ~ Attention is the Beginning of Devotion 
With Esther Yff-Prins, Spiritual Director

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work . . . Attention is the beginning of devotion,” the insightful and beloved poet, Mary Oliver, wrote.

Mary Oliver's observation and love for the natural world speak to us in profound ways, if we are still enough to listen. With Esther Yff-Prins, spiritual director, as our guide we will sit with the poems of Mary Oliver and explore what the rhythms of her poetry reveal to us during this pandemic.

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) won the National Book Award and Pultizer Prize for her poetry. Influenced by both Whitman and Throreau, she is known for her clear and poignant observances of the natural world. Her poetry combines dark introspection with joyous release. She found that the self is only strengthened through an immersion with nature. Oliver is also known for her unadorned language and accessible themes. The Harvard Review describes Ms. Oliver as "... a poet of wisdom and generosity whose vision allows us to look intimately at a world not of our making." (Excerpted from Wikipedia.)

SUPPORT DOMINICAN CENTER AT MARYWOOD

Dominican Center continues to hold space for contemplative experiences through the support of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids.  If you find yourself in a position to support the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids with a donation, please do so here. Thank you for your generosity.

NEW TO ZOOM?

• View this short video tutorial on how to use Zoom
• If you experience problems with Zoom, please email us at dcmreceptionists@dominicancenter.com

PREVIOUS BE STILL AND STAY AND THE LIGHT GATHERINGS

• May 25: Stay in the Light on Memorial Day ~ The Great Cloud of Witnesses, with Sister Diane Zerfas, OP, Center for Spirituality Coordinator
• May 18:  Living in the Light of Our Original Blessing: Lorilyn Wiering, SoulCare Sanctuaries
• May 11: The Gift of Tears ~ Stay in the Light with St. Catherine of Siena with Cindy Warner, Dominican Center Intern from Aquinas College and Sister Diane Zerfas, OP, Center for Spirituality Coordinator
• May 4: Write Your Heart Out ~ Stay in the Light with Sandra Mitchell, Writer and Coach
• April 27: Prayer for Those in Service to Others with Sister Diane Zerfas, OP, Center for Spirituality Coordinator

Centering Prayer is a modernized prayer method based on the intuitive prayer rooted in Lectio Divina. It is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience the Divine’s immanent presence with us. Centering Prayer is grounded in relationship with God, through Christ, and is a practice to nurture that relationship.

Centering Prayer complements and supports other modes of prayer — verbal, mental, or affective prayer — and facilitates resting in the Divine Presence. Centering Prayer offers a way to grow in intimacy with God, moving beyond conversation to communion.

As Thomas Keating emphasizes, the source of Centering Prayer, as in all methods leading to contemplative prayer, is the Indwelling Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. The effects of Centering Prayer are ecclesial, as the prayer tends to build communities of faith and bond the members together in mutual friendship and love. (source: https://gravitycenter.com/practice/centering-prayer/)

Gatherings Held Via Zoom
By using the link below, you will enter the Dominican Center Zoom waiting space. No registration required.
Participants will be greeted around 11:50 am. Come early and please feel free to invite a friend or family member to join.

Centering Prayer link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82042706178

NEW TO ZOOM?

• View this short video tutorial on how to use Zoom
• If you experience problems with Zoom, please email us at dcmreceptionists@dominicancenter.com

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