By Sr. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD Dedicated in honor of S. Johanna Seubert, FSPA and S. Henrita Frost, SSND. This place of tender oneness with all nature and all beings celebrates the providential and visionary leadership of these outstanding sisters. Between them they share 40 years of compassionate and conscious service. Celebrated by the Board of Directors and all the Christine Center Staff: June 20, 2017 Activating these essential centers of perception allowed St. Francis to transcend appearances and to enter fully into the divine resonance that is the true nature of all God’s creation. With all his being, St. Francis was able to hear the music of heaven in all things. As you experience the presence of this sculpture you might recognize it as the moment insight comes. Nearing the end of his life, St. Francis desired to teach his little band of followers a song or canticle that summed up his spiritual path. Naming them one by one, St. Francis gives God thanks and praise for what he most loves; singing how each element of creation reveals to him a certain aspect of the Divine. Showing the full wisdom of his spiritual insight, he praises God not only for the beautiful experiences through which the Divine can easily be sensed, but also for the great mystery of suffering and difficult times, even in the presence of Sister Death. St. Francis has learned in deep contemplation, how to know God in all things, no exceptions! We give thanks and praise for the way in which Sisters Johanna and Henrita live that mystical vision and will continue here at the Christine Center in a ministry of prayer, presence and inspired spiritual guidance. You can print out the Canticle of the Creatures.
The New Christine Center Canticle Meditation Circle and Sculpture
This sculpture entitled Unitive Insight is by metal artist and long-time friend, Henry Eisenhauer. Grounded in the center of the Canticle Contemplation Circle, it represents the human awakening of the physical, the emotional, and the intellectual centers. 
This beloved Canticle, often called the Canticle of the Creatures, summarizes the Franciscan heritage of the Christine Center where all are welcomed as Divine Guest.
The Christine Center: My Alma Mater
From Mary Pendergast, Sisters of Mercy, Cumberland, Rhode Island
1982 – 1987 studied meditation with Sister Virginia and Sister Davina: Or some early history of the Christine Center
My journey to the Christine Center in 1982 was preceded by painful rheumatoid arthritis. Sister Virginia was conducting a meditation retreat near my home several years earlier and one of my friends had told me that Virginia was a healer. I attended the retreat, learned some meditation skills and as I had hoped, I had a healing session with Sister Virginia Mary. Over time, with an ever deepening meditation practice, my health improved greatly. This led me to request and to receive permission to travel to the Christine Center to study meditation with Sister Virginia.
For five years I studied and worked at both building the meditation center and building my own spiritual practice with guidance from Virginia and the many teachers who made their way to Willard. In that time I became principal cook, bread maker, gardener, tractor driver, laundress, construction worker and welcomed all who came to work and meditate at the Christine Center.
These were formative years for the Center. When I arrived, there was a house and the barn and one hermitage. The barn still had a long way to go before it would be transformed into the meditation loft and library, showers and kitchen.
During my recent visit with Sister Gabe we were laughing over pictures of her literally pitching out the muck from the cow stalls one weekend and me shoveling out cow manure from a truck that would form the basis of our gigantic organic garden. Sister Virginia would quote, “As above, so below.” We would wonder about the level of our spiritual life when it seemed that all we ever did was move cow dung! In time the barn became the heart of the meditation center.
Several retired farmers would come to help us build the hermitages, and I learned the additional skills of shingling roofs and digging post holes. There is a defined spiritual energy in this land. I experienced it both as a still point and an outward radiating force of light and love and power, excluding no one and nothing.
Presently I am the Ecology Director for the Sisters of Mercy in the Northeast. It is an educative and justice activist role which also includes future planning for the land of the Sisters of Mercy. My brief visit to the Christine Center was, in a way, returning to an alma mater to see the old campus, now much expanded, beautiful and growing. “This experience was foundational for a life of contemplation and action. I will always be grateful for knowing Sister Virginia and for the privilege of my time here.”
Jean Feraca Interviews Andrew Harvey: A Dynamic Spiritual Conversation
The Christine Center was fortunate to have Andrew Harvey as a presenter during our 2016 Annual Year-end Retreat, December 27-January 1.
An extraordinary spiritual teacher and founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism, acclaimed author of over 30 books, and mystical scholar, Andrew came to the Christine Center for an unforgettable week to offer daily reflection and soul conversation about the holy mystery of Mary of Nazareth, mother of Jesus, and icon of Wisdom, Mercy and Love. Attendees opened their hearts to the mystery, the blessings and the strength of the Mother love to help heal their heart.
Our special friend Jean Feraca interviewed Andrew one morning in what became a dynamic spiritual conversation.
Video by Christian Lea
Praise for Andrew Harvey
Every age has its teachers, who keep the eternal truths alive for all of us. And when a generation is very, very lucky, it encounters a teacher so illumined that the words he delivers must be illumined as well. In the case of Andrew Harvey, the light he sheds is like a meteor burst across the inner sky. Marianne Williamson
Andrew is a brilliant, inspired visionary who has the ability to interpret the meaning of the chaos and rapid changes that are redirecting the compass of our contemporary culture. He is a spiritual, intellectual, and cultural mystic whose passion is to awaken people to a new and essential empowerment in this world: sacred activism. Caroline Myss
Visit www.andrewharvey.net for more information about Andrew and Sacred Activism.
About Jean
After almost 30 years Jean retired as Wisconsin Public Radio’s Distinguished Senior Broadcaster in 2012.
She was host and executive producer of Here on Earth: Radio without Borders.
She won an Ohio State and Gabriel Award for her Women of Spirit radio series on female leaders in the early Christian Church, and the National Telemedia Council’s Distinguished Media Award for her radio advocacy of people with mental illness, and the 2011 Gabriel Award for Inside Islam, “Muslims, Mosques, and American Identity.”
A resident of Madison, Wisconsin, she is author of three collections of poetry: South from Rome: Il Mezzogiorno, Crossing the Great Divide, and Rendered into Paradise.
Jean was the recipient of the Nation’s Discovery Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a two-time finalist for the Pushcart Prize and a National Poetry Foundation Prize.
I Hear Voices: A Memoir of Love, Death, and the Radio, was selected as the 2011 winner of the Kingery/Derleth Book-Length Nonfiction Award, sponsored by the Council for Wisconsin Writers. It was also named an Outstanding Book by the American Association of School Librarians, and one of the year’s Best Books for General Audiences by the Public Library Association.
Care for Our Common Home
Reprinted here from our February 2016 online newsletter.
By Cecilia Corcoran FSPA
Saturday morning, standing on our home planet, I gazed into the clear early dawn darkness to catch the glow of five planets revolving in outer space. As a shimmering moon bedded down at the horizon, I tingled with wonder at the radiance that held so much power. I knew that our lights glimmered back to theirs. Earth’s cities beckon into the far reaches of space.
With this February e-news I celebrate with you LAUDATO SI: PRAISE BE TO YOU. Pope Francis has written this amazing letter to all of us ON THE CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME. At the Christine Center, we urge you to read it and take it to heart.
Many of you are well aware and have shifted over the years to be aligned with this urgent message. Be affirmed and supported in your efforts. Be steadfast as you deepen in wisdom and respond as a planetary citizen.
So important is the work for spiritual deepening and global transformation that Pope Francis takes Chapter Six to talk about ecological spirituality.
I read the focus on “… awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging and of a future to be shared with everyone” as an affirmation of our Christine Center Prayer of Unity prayed each day at the end of the morning meditation.
In the prayer we affirm we are one in mind, heart and body. That’s unity consciousness!
Programs at the Christine Center are designed to deepen and strengthen one’s potential to care for our common home.
The woods, meadows and gardens offer themselves for our contemplation and delight. We may be moved to a deepening respect, full of gratitude for the silent giving of plants and animals which sustains us.
We, in turn, respond with compassion to others and ourselves. Being here is preparation for serving the common good. Our spiritual practice is deepening for global transformation!
PRAISE IS TO YOU! For all the ways you are aware and making a difference for our common home!
We invite you to the Stillness.
The Gift of Spiritual Guidance at the Christine Center
By Cecilia Corcoran, FSPA, PhD
Did you ever hear the expression: I can’t hear myself think If I’m honest, I admit it’s my own busy mind that is creating the difficulty.
To focus and really hear what I think or what my heart is calling for I need some quiet. And sometimes I need to sort myself out in the presence of a trusted friend or confidant.
At times I need a spiritual guide who can listen to me from a place of personal strength, someone who has honed a non-judgmental attitude and is wise in the ways of the human heart.
Often a session with a guide sets me back on my feet, puts my plight into perspective or opens a path I wouldn’t have dared to take without walking around my options with this experienced guide.
I wanted to write about spiritual guidance at the Christine Center because I’m aware of how many of you come here seeking private time with one of our highly experienced spiritual guides. Each of the four women have been recognized for her insightful compassion. People of all ages, from every walk of life come through the door for their private session.
Some of you perhaps have never had such an hour and are puzzled about how it goes. You might wonder why or when to seek individual time to process your unique experience. I suggest listen to your heart. It will lead you.
Some people look forward to this sacred time when they come on retreat; some annually, some seasonally. It’s a way to take stock or get motivated. Seek a spiritual guide as often as you feel the need to refocus or to sort through the challenges that come pell-mell uninvited into your life leaving you bereft, or in grief, or seemingly disempowered.
With spiritual guidance I come to stillness, to inner joy. I find confidence that all will be well and all manner of things will be well. Consider what it might offer you.
Learn More about Spiritual Guidance Sessions.