By Henrita Frost, SSND, a member of the Christine Center Leadership Team.

All Mandalas are by Henrita and are 17″x17″.

I never thought I could do this work; I am not an artist. Through *Sr. Gabriele’s patient and supportive companionship, I learned how to use the art materials and create mandalas. It was freeing to know that it’s OK to make mistakes and erase. I erased a lot.

I discovered that doing the work is a contemplative practice for me that touches into my depth. I learned the important lesson of waiting for the next step to reveal itself, that I needed to take time to be contemplative and thoughtful.

The first Mandala I created is pictured on the left, which I call The Ever Present Trinity (17″x 17″). The first elements that came to me were the spirals representing the past, present, and future of my life. I saw how the spirals flowed together in the center and realized the oneness of my life.

Next I was inspired to add the om symbol, which for me represents the God in me and in everything. It is like breathing God. The hearts are the heartbeats filling me with aliveness and energy. In the four corners are the lotus flowers symbolizing compassion for myself and all of creation.

Mandala art continues to take me on a very rewarding journey that reveals my sacred life with greater depth and meaning.

Mandala below right is entitled  No Ordinary Time.

 

*Throughout the year at the Christine Center, Sr. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD offers Mandala-Making: Set Free Your Inner Light of Soul.

Below is an except from Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Corbell, Ph.D. This title and many others about Mandala art is available in our bookstore.

Why Create a Mandala?

• Because it has the regenerative and curative power to activate the latent powers of the mind. The meditative process helps to focus and open the heart to the healing power of unconditional love.
• Because it has a calming and relaxing effect on the mind and body, thus focusing and strengthening the will to heal.
• Because it can bring joy as it facilitates the healing of a sense of psychological fragmentation.
• Because it can make the invisible visible, expressing paradoxical situations or patterns of ultimate reality that can be expressed in no other way.
• Because it can reveal unity between human existence and the structure of the cosmos, opening up a perspective in which things can be understood as a whole.
• Because it can give form and expression to an intuitive insight into spiritual truths by releasing the inner light of the soul.                                   

An interview with Henry Eisenhauer.

A few years ago I had been creating craft work to sell at our church fundraisers and at the Christine Center. During a visit to San Diego, I was talking with a minister who I knew from Milwaukee. We were discussing my craft work and she said, “You know, Henry, you’re an artist.” I replied, “I am not an artist.” But the next day I was browsing through an art gallery and saw a stainless steel sculpture. And, oh my gosh, I loved this artist’s work so much. I started to shake with excitement as I thought I can do this, I want to do this, that’s what I want to create. Maybe I am an artist after all.

Back home I acquired some stainless steel and began to work on the sculpture that is now in the Christine Center garden. As I reflected on what I wanted to create, my anger surfaced about the chaos of this world. I saw the metal breaking open and coming out with a fist. But that image was too violent.

Something happened to me as I progressed with the sculpture. I realized that I wanted to express love, not anger. Love for the world. Something new coming out of the chaos is what the stainless steel began to represent to me. It was transforming. Through this artwork, I transformed my anger at the world to love for the world.  

I now always work from my heart. I leave pieces of metal on the bench in my studio, meditate on the pieces and ideas come. Love comes.

The above sculpture, Rebirth 2012, was given to the Christine Center in honor of Cecilia Corcoran, FSPA when she retired as the Christine Center’s Director.

Henry is a member of the Christine Center’s Board of Directors and participated in the Christine Center’s three-year spiritual deepening program. He also completed the Center’s Peace Pole and the new Unity sculpture at the silo entrance. His work entitled, I Am, was on display at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. Henry is retired and lives in West Bend, WI with his wife Paula.

By Thomas Roberts, LCSW, LMFT.

This is not a book about how to improve yourself. You are fine just the way you are. 

So what exactly does the Mindfulness workbook offer?

Simply this: when we stop trying to change ourselves and come to embrace who we are with compassion then our journey deepens. The time and effort we put into trying to be someone different is a profoundly painful process of self-rejection and self-aversion.

Over the years of our experiences we have accumulated many layers of learning and conditioning; the way we were taught to think and feel about our world and ourselves. We add stories to these layers and accept those stories as true.

Have you ever asked yourself: “What if how I was taught to think and feel about my self is not as accurate as I have come to believe?”

If those things are not true….then, what is?

You then have a wonderful opportunity to begin the process of listening deeply to what I refer to as “the part of you that has always known better.” Your inner wisdom about you and your experiences.

You then can come to accepting yourself. That’s right you, right now, as you are, and YES, with your unique imperfections!

How is it we ever learned that perfection was required? Required to be loved, accepted, successful, smart, attractive, worthy etc.. Silly and certainly not very helpful!

Our journey deepens profoundly when we come to accept and hold our imperfections with great care and compassion.

Take the time to become more patient with yourself. Give yourself permission to celebrate your imperfections not reject them, and hold that vulnerable, confused, imperfect you with tenderness and compassion.

A synonym of mindful is “careful.” To be mindful is to be careful; and the first place you start is to become more care-full with yourself.

I offer this book as a gentle vehicle to navigate your journey with gentle patience, openness and compassion.

For more information about Thomas, visit his Facebook Page. His book is available for sale at Spirit Jewel Bookstore at the Christine Center or at amazon.com.

 

 

By Aveen Banich, MD

I began to write the bones of this short book during a time in my life when spiritual experiences were expanding my vision on an almost daily basis. I wrote during that spiritual adventure to help me remember and stay awake to the love that was expanding my vision.

For years prior to that period, I had sought to balance a high-powered career in medicine with motherhood. It wore me down and in rare moments of stillness during that time, I felt a deep sense of unrest approaching the shores of my consciousness. It was a knowing that I had forgotten something vital and important. Have you ever felt that way?

The lifestyle valued and pursued within our culture is a powerful amnestic agent. We glorify busyness. We compete to achieve success. We chase a dream only to arrive and find it was a mirage. These ways of being mask simple and magical answers that are constantly within our reach.

We have forgotten that love is the key to escaping our predicament; it is the illumination to our dark night. Awakened consciousness involves accessing that love in order to live fully while we are on this Earth. Looking outside of ourselves and sending love towards others also just happens to be one of the quickest routes to transformation. It gives us a perspective that no amount of self-reflection or self-judgment can provide.

During these long and cold winter days, pause and remember that you are no less than an expression of the Divine. You chose to be here. You are a conduit for love and your sweet presence on this planet matters. It is time for each of us to expand our vision. Love is our currency and this New Year, it is our great privilege to spend it recklessly and with abandon.

Aveen Banich M.D. is the author of Expanding Vision: 5 ways to see more love in your life.

For more information and to buy on Amazon.com.