The Mystic Cave

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Teresa Hanlon was doing ministry within her church long before she was ordained. But when she became a priest, her Church excommunicated her and inhibited her from doing the work she loved. Providentially, for her and the other women priests ordained within the Catholic tradition (if not in the Roman Catholic Church itself), it was not an ending. It was a beginning,  signalling perhaps the rebirth of Christianity itself ... with women at the table.

Acronyms & their links:
LICCF (Lethbridge Inclusive Catholic Community Fellowship): https://liccf.ca
RCWPC (Roman Catholic Women Priests Canada): http://rcwpcanada.ca/
CNWE (Catholic Network for Women's Equality): https://www.cnwe.org
WOW (Women's Ordination Worldwide): http://womensordinationcampaign.org
WOC (Women's Ordination Conference): https://www.womensordination.org

Recommended Resources:
1) Womanpriest:Tradition and Transgression in the Contemporary Roman Catholic Church (New York: Fordham University Press, 2020) by Jill Peterfeso
Available online https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/37528
2) VIDEO Pink Smoke over the Vatican: www.pinksmokeoverthevatican.com 2011
3) Mary and Early Christian Women by Ally Kateusz, Ally: ham, Switzerland, 2019 available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331185040_Mary_and_Early_Christian_Women_Hidden_Leadership
4) A PERIODICAL which reviews relevant news with some original material (Teresa's story found here as well): The Review RCWP Canada online, twice monthly review of RC women topics including ordination. https://rcwpcanada.altervista.org/
5) My Journey from Silence to Solidarity: The Life story of Roy Bourgeois, (Maryknoll priest  of 40 years excommunicated and expelled from his order because of support for a woman friend's Catholic ordination).    http://www.roybourgeoisjourney.org/book/book.pdf
6) Interview of author of biography of RC women's ordination behind the Iron Curtain through a contemporary, online ministry called FUTURE CHURCH https://futurechurch.org/women-in-church-leadership/pope-francis-meet-your-priest-ludmilla-javarova-with-miriam-therese-winter/

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

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Everything we do reflects Soul. Because Soul is about what's inside. How we dress is one way we let our inner self out, to be seen. Barry Foster, known by some as "the best dressed man in church land," knows that our sartorial choices are so much more than fashion statements. They are about who we are.

Resources
"True Style: The History and Principles of Classic Menswear," by G. Bruce Boyer; Basic Books, 2015
"The Rake" magazine ("the modern voice of classic elegance"): https://therake.com/magazine

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Here's a song I wrote a few years ago that has become special to me. I often use it to close my performances of music and storytelling. This version is just a demo, meaning the song is still in development. But I wanted to share it with you as is, as a small gift at New Years. Enjoy!

Song Credit:
Music and lyrics by Brian E Pearson; recorded in The Mystic Cave studio
Double bass performed by Cory Hutcheson

Photo Credit:
Photo by laura adai on Unsplash. 

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Set in 1995, when people still smoked and few had cell phones, this retelling of the Christmas story imagines a young couple overwhelmed by circumstances larger than themselves and by a dark and inhospitable world seemingly incapable of welcoming their newborn. Until the city utility truck arrives, and then a carload of academics.

Story Credit: Written, performed, and produced by Brian E Pearson

Soundscape Credits:
Copenhagen Streetscape by iwilhelm13; Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0
Old Station Wagon by Kyles; Creative Commons 0 license
School Bus Old Rattly Idle by Kyles; Creative Commons 0 license
Indoor Adult Murmur by SpliceSound; Creative Commons 0 license
Fluorescent Tube Sound by Garuda1982; Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 license
Tires Squealing by Rutget Muller; Creative Commons 0 license
Fast-starting Car by RobinHood76; Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 license
Heaven Voices by RobinHood76; Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 license
Celestial "Unknown Voices" by bolkmar; Attribution 3.0 license
Don Nobis Pacem Cathedral by Klanlbeeld; Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 license

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

After days, weeks, even years of preparation, each Vision Quester headed off for a three-day solo fast on a mountainside in Southwestern Colorado. Every experience was unique. But everyone had an experience, a Soul Encounter, that awakened us to our place in the Universe. Here, Vincenzo Falone and I tell our own stories of going solo.

Links to Vincenzo Falone
Personal and Group Mentoring: https://liveinfullexpression.com
The ManKind Project: https://mkpusa.org/crossroads/

Links to the Animas Valley Institute
https://www.animas.org

Books by Bill Plotkin (all books published by New World Library)
"Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche," 2003
"Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World," 2008
"Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche," 2013
"The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide Visionaries, Revolutionaries, and Revolutionaries," 2021

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Eleven days camping on a Colorado mountainside, three of those days a solo fast, seeking an encounter with Nature that might grant us a vision of our mythopoetic identities, our unique place in the Universe: it would have been an ambitious undertaking for someone half our age. But somehow Vincenzo Falone, from New Jersey, and I, a Canadian from Alberta, felt drawn to be there, both of us in our late sixties (and one of us pushing seventy rather hard). This is the story of what got us there.

Links to Vincenzo Falone
Personal and Group Mentoring: https://liveinfullexpression.com
The ManKind Project: https://mkpusa.org/crossroads/

Links to the Animas Valley Institute
https://www.animas.org

Books by Bill Plotkin (all books published by New World Library)
"Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche," 2003
"Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World," 2008
"Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche," 2013
"The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide Visionaries, Revolutionaries, and Revolutionaries," 2021

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

A few gurus and spiritual leaders have given all the others a bad name. But yoga and meditation instructor Vickie MacArthur has a story to tell about Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Master, whose gaze was all it took to change her life, filling her with divine love. It's a story we may need to hear.

Vickie's book and web sites
"A Lotus on Fire: How a Buddhist Monk Ignited my Heart": https://a.co/d/4PhkbLV
https://www.vickiemacarthur.ca
https://spiritinmotionyoga.com

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

We might deny it, but we're all creative. We might not make a painting, but we might make a garden or a business or a home. Visual artist Jan Handy speaks with me about the challenges and the joys of following our Muse. It's everyone's calling.

Resources
Jan's email address: [email protected]
Books mentioned in our conversation:
"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity," by Julia Cameron; Jeremy P. Tarcher / Random House; 1992, 2002, 2016
"The Practice: Shipping Creative Work," by Seth Godin; Portfolio / Penguin, New York; 2020
"The Creative Act: A Way of Being," by Rick Rubin; Penguin Press, New York; 2023

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Is our spirituality shaped by our sexuality? Or are we shaped more by the social constructs of that sexuality? Counselling psychologist and professor emeritus Kevin Alderson has spent his career specializing in LGBTQ+ issues and helping people to accept themselves, whatever their sexuality. Only when we love ourselves can we learn how to be "givers" rather than "takers" and become the people we are capable of being.

About Kevin:
Most recent book: Counselling Today: Bridging Art, Science, and Practice; Cognella Publications, January 2024.
Upcoming book: The New Sex: An Exposé of What You Could be Missing (as yet unpublished).

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

What if our place in the Universe isn't a job, or a role, or anything the world might recognize as useful? What if it's more subtle and more fundamental than how the world sees us? What would that look like? And how would we even know if we'd found it? Celia McBride's memoir, O My God: An Un-becoming Journey, explores this territory as she shares the story of her passionate desire to become a nun, only to have Soul lead her somewhere else.

Links to Celia McBride
Celia's book: O My God: An Un-becoming Journey
Celia's web site: https://www.celiamcbride.com

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2026