Blessings!

The Contemplative Society is excited to welcome back accomplished and inspiring wisdom guide, Heather Ruce, to lead a Holy Week Silent Wisdom Retreat from April 3 – 6, 2023 at the beautiful Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo B.C. Join us for 4 days of deep immersion  into this sacred week as we open ourselves to the life giving energy of Love, accompanying Jesus and Mary Magdalene through this holy time, so that we too may embody and be bearers of that Love.

In addition to the Silent Wisdom Retreat, Heather Ruce will also facilitate 2 single day events, one at the Multifaith Centre in Victoria, B.C. on April 1, 2023 and the other at the Centre for Spiritual Renewal in Langley, B.C. on April 8th. Please see below for more details about each event and links to register.

Check out the sale offer below of Cynthia’s Bourgeault’s “Through Holy Week with Mary Magdalene”.

Blessings and Deep Love for your spiritual journey in this Lenten time,

Henri Lock
The Contemplative Society

4 DAY RETREAT WITH HEATHER RUCE:

Holy Week Silent Wisdom Retreat in Nanaimo, B.C:

Accompanying Jesus and Mary Magdalene

 through the Paschal Mystery

Location: Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo BC, Canada
Dates: April 3rd at 5:30pm to April 6th at noon, 2023
OR Online via Zoom
Registration Fee: Follow link below
Retreat Leader: Heather Ruce
Holy Week is more than a series of events surrounding the final days of Jesus’s earthy life that we are to commemorate. We can enter this sacred week from the inside as a way of mutual accompaniment in which we are concurrently embodying the postures of Jesus and Mary Magdalene through this timeless passage through death. Under the conditions of deep silence—weaving in the transformative currents of surrender, three centered presence, attention, and recollection—we will open ourselves to the intense life giving energy of the Paschal Mystery available to us that we might emerge with the steadfast knowing that ‘Love is as strong as death’ and we too are called to be bearers of that Love.
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Join us at the Bethlehem Centre for a silent experiential retreat. There will be an immersion into a ‘wisdom way of knowing’ through a daily rhythm of mindful walking, centering prayer, teaching, reflection, ritual, Gurdjieff Exercises and Movements, chanting, and contemplative free time embedded in the Great Silence.

Retreat Leader: Heather Ruce

Heather, M.A., is a wisdom spiritual director companioning individuals and facilitating wisdom practice circles, groups, retreats, and wisdom schools focused on learning and practicing the Christian Wisdom Tradition. She offers teaching and guidance in various wisdom and mindfulness practices including Centering Prayer, Christian meditation, sacred chanting, lectio divina, conscious work and embodiment in service of waking up and putting on the mind of Christ. Find out more at heatherruce.com.

MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTER HERE

DAY EVENTS WITH HEATHER RUCE:

Lenten Day Event in Victoria:

Preparing to Accompany Jesus and Mary Magdalene through Holy Week

Location: Multifaith Centre in Victoria BC, Canada
Date: April 1st, 2023 from 10:00am — 4:00pm

Registration Fee: Sliding Scale
Retreat Leader: Heather Ruce
 
On this Lenten Day, we will prepare ourselves to enter Holy week from the inside by embodying the postures of Jesus and Mary Magdalene through this timeless passage. Let’s join together in community to learn and practice Wisdom, weaving in the transformative currents of surrender, three centered presence, attention, and recollection. May we open more fully to encounter the transformative life-giving energy of Holy Week.
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Join us at the Multifaith Centre for a special contemplative wisdom event led by Heather Ruce, in which we engage this sacred day with our minds, feelings, and body through teaching, reflection and shared wisdom practices.
REGISTER HERE

Holy Saturday Event in Langley, B.C:

Accompanying Jesus and Mary Magdalene 

Location: The Centre for Spiritual Renewal at St. Andrew’s Church, Langley B.C.

OR Online via Zoom
Date: April 8th, 2023 from 10:00am – 4:00pm
Registration Fee: Sliding Scale
Retreat Leader: Heather Ruce

Holy Saturday marks Jesus’ journeys into the heart of the earth in which he not only encounters the most constricted, cut off and hurt states of human consciousness in the collective false self but allows love to reach them and weave them into the whole. Meanwhile Mary Magdalene, the Tower, keeps vigil with a heart open in love as Jesus enters this pivotal point in the passion events, the outcome of which is still unknown to her. We are invited to enter this day from a wisdom point of view opening ourselves to the possibility of embodying the postures of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the context of our very own lives.

Join us at the Centre for Spiritual Renewal for a contemplative wisdom event in which we engage this sacred day with our minds, feelings, and body through teaching, reflection and shared wisdom practices.
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Image: Stained glass window in Kilmore Church, Isle of Mull, by artist Stephen Adam. It is believed to be Mary Magdalene and Jesus, inscribed “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Gospel of Luke ch10.v42
REGISTER HERE
25% OFF MP3 SALE!
“Through Holy Week with Mary Magdalene”- MP3
Now $29.95– 25% off from the regular $39.95
The sale ends March 31, 2023

In this recording, Cynthia Bourgeault restores Mary Magdalene as a central figure in the Paschal mystery. She models that the transformed human heart bridging the finite and the infinite as eros is surmounted and taken to the place where “love is stronger than death.” This is a spiritual path founded on the redeeming love of Jesus and passed on to the disciples by Mary Magdalene. Through Mary Magdalene’s witnessing and “substituted love,” we come to understand how the human heart is the gateway to the transformational mystery.

This set of talks deserves serious consideration by all Christians interested not only in their own spiritual journey, but also in the future of Christianity as the incarnational faith embodying the way of kenotic love – the way to the cosmic Christ spirit.

PURCHASE HERE