Join Pam Robertson for a guided Advent meditation focusing on these themes each week: hope, peace, love and joy! Listen along to a Christmas story about being present followed by suggestions from author Joyce Rupp on how to cultivate more presence for yourself this holiday season. Finally a list of where to find the Christmas story in the Bible. 

Resources:

Opening: Matthew West that invites readers to return to God during the Christmas season in his book, Come Home for Christmas.  

Where is the Christmas story in the Bible?

Story: A Christmas Miracle, Family Circle, Dec.2013 by Glennon Doyle Melton

Suggestions for giving the present of presence by Joyce Rupp. 

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Join us for a conversation with Cathy AJ Hardy a spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and founder of Soul Care ®, offering courses in spiritual formation and direction. A facilitator of soul work for the past two decades, Cathy is also the author of four books: Love Breathes with Me (2018), Walk With Me (2020), and Love Breathes With Me II (2022), and Pause; A Year of Soulful Meditation (2023). 

In addition to her passion for guiding others in their spiritual growth, Cathy is also a poet and award-winning singer-songwriter, her most recent album being released this year is called Here I Am.  Cathy lives in Mission, B.C. among the mountains, rivers, and forests. 

More about Cathy at: Cathyajhardy.com

Soulcare.ca

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

When spiritual director Anne Sussman started to meditate every day, the trajectory of her life changed! She started to sleep through the night; was far less anxious. She started to hear that small voice in her heart that said, “quit your job, because you’re miserable,” louder than she heard the chatter that said, “what are you crazy? You can’t quit your job!” The more she meditated, the clearer it became to become a certified meditation instructor, learning the trademarked method of SEED - Simple Easy Every Day meditation. She then went on to become a Mindfulness@Work trainer, so she could share the tools that helped change her life so profoundly. Join host Pam Robertson as Anne guides us through a meditation.

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Connect with Anne Sussman:

Welcome to our guest Dr. Cindy S. Lee who serves on the Board of Spiritual Director's International (SDI). Dr. Lee has a PhD in Practical Theology from Claremont School of Theology focused on Spiritual Formation and a DMin in Transformational Leadership from Bakke Graduate University. In her book, Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation, Taiwanese-American Dr. Cindy Lee invites us to unform our Western dominated understandings and instead reflect on cultural orientations of turning from linear to cyclical, from cerebral to experiential, and from individual to collective, and additionally engaging contextual lenses or postures such as imagination, language, elders, and harmony. 

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Host, Marcella Kraybill-Greggo, Director of Spirituality Programs MTS

Spiritual Directors International https://www.sdicompanions.org/

A conversation with Father Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ. Author of six books on prayer and spirituality including the Armchair Mystic and Ignatian Discernment of the Spirits for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Care. Father Mark is an acknowledged expert on prayer and discernment. For ten years, he served as the director for Jesuits in formation, and he is currently the pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in New Orleans, Louisiana.

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Host Pam Robertson www.talkingjoy.org

You are invited to experience this new season by participating in spiritual awareness practices! Please join host, Pam Robertson and Wisdom Teacher, Marcella Kraybill-Greggo!  

These practices invite you to become more awake and aware of the ordinary moments of your everyday life.

Join us for 4 conscious prayers: The Body Prayer, Full Prostration, Listening to Your Life, and Contemplating Your Child or Loved One. 

The invitation is to sit quietly and allow this conscious work to enter into your everyday life.

Notice what happens in you as you do this exercise along with Pam and Marcella. 

Something that you can’t find in your mind—because it lives in your body! 

Here we invite you to PAUSE in the middle of the day and listen to the sounds of your life.

Notice the sounds that might be common like traffic, birds, and your refrigerator running. Now listen for sounds that you may not have noticed like your dog breathing down by your feet. Now see if you can open up your expanse by noticing the energy around you and in the world. See what you can access listening in on your life.

Take a deep breath and then go about your day. The idea is to see if you can expand your awareness into your life.

Breathing involves your body. As I slow down and exhale, notice how a deeper breath follows.

A conscious work practice with Visio Divina - Visio is taking a picture or an image and being present with it, noticing what happens when you sit with it. Notice the wave of Love—a reminder of how deeply you are loved by God.

Marcella says, “when you have a child you are gazing into the face of God—no matter what age they are.”

For more information: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Learn more about Wisdom Waypoints here: www.wisdomwaypoints.org

*This conversation originally aired on The Talking Joy Podcast with host Pam Rotelle Roberson www.talkingjoy.org

Join host Pam Robertson for a conversation about the Enneagram with teacher, Jeanine Siler-Jones. The enneagram can be a resource for deepening personal and spiritual growth. We are all born with a particular style. Enneagram teacher Jeanine Siler Jones helps us explore the value of this tool and how it can help cultivate compassion for ourselves and others. She touches on the 9 types as an introduction to this practice of self-discovery. These types are broken into triads- the centers of intelligence—head, heart and body. Our conversation highlights why we do what we do, what is the motivation and how we can gain a better understanding of ourselves and others.

For the past thirty years, Jeanine has engaged in the Enneagram as a path to a deep connection with herself, others, and God. She has studied with Cynthia Bourgeault in her Wisdom Schools and has a daily contemplative practice.*

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Siler Jones Counseling: https://silerjonescounseling.com

*This conversation originally aired on The Talking Joy Podcast with host Pam Rotelle Roberson www.talkingjoy.org

Join us for a heart rhythm meditation with Maureen DeBellis! Learn about Heart Rhythm Meditation it’s effects on overall well-being; including, an expanded sense of self! Maureen is a spiritual director, inter-spiritual companion, a teacher of Heart Rhythm Meditation (HRM) and a retreat guide for the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  She has a BA in Marriage and Family Studies from DeSales University and is a Graduate of the Spiritual Direction program at Moravian Theological Seminary. 

She has a private practice of individual and group spiritual direction. She serves as a meditation teacher, mentor and coach in the Heart Rhythm Meditation Community and a contract spiritual director and supervisor of spiritual directors at Moravian Theological Seminary. 

HRM is a gentle way to increase sensitivity and nervous system capacity. Maureen says, as a spiritual director and healer these are important skills to cultivate within myself.

Connect with Maureen: https://www.maureendebellis.com/about 

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Host Pam Robertson www.talkingjoy.org

Join us for a guided YES mediation with Lori Christine Young and host Pam Robertson. Lori is an Integrative Somatic Coach which includes her work as a Somatic Spiritual Director who is trained in and informed by Holistic Spirituality and Contemplative Spiritual Direction, Somatic Experiencing (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner™️), Plyvagal Theory (Deb Dana’s Rhythm of Regulation™️) and other trauma & nervous system perspectives. Lori is Adjunct Faculty at Moravian Seminary teaching and supervising students in the Spiritual Direction Program. 

Connect with Lori: https://lorichristineyoung.com/

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Wisdom Spiritual Director, Heather Ruce joins us talk about finding our center. Heather says, what she has discovered in doing this Wisdom work is that it calls for a different level of being in the world requiring her to do what it takes to regulate the nervous system so that she's not operating reactively. Bonus: Heather leads a ten minute meditation during our conversation! Heather is a graduate of our MTS Wisdom Infused Spiritual Direction Training Program!

For more information about Moravian Theological Seminary's Spiritual Direction Program: https://www.moravianseminary.edu/academics/certificate/spiritual-direction

Music by Robert Long: [email protected]

Heather Ruce: https://www.heatherruce.com/about

Host Pam Rotelle Robertson