Great day yesterday......

Update: Jim Forest's personal photos from the weekend are posted here.

The conference yesterday was really cool on "Climate of Fear, Commitment to Peace". The first morning session was "Merton and the Search for Peace", then we had a break....the second session in the morning had concurrent sessions....the option were: "Spiritually Surviving Two Wars and A Revolution", by Dittmar Mundel, "Mohandas Gandhi, Satyagraha and the Living out of Peace", by Hannah Goa and "African Culture & Merton's Vision of Peace: Common Spiritual Sources, by Bitupu-Mufuta Felicien. Matthew and I went to the one on Gandhi and Satyagraha.....it was really great. We would have loved to have gone to all three, unfortunately we can only be in one place at a time.....So, the afternoon started off with "War & Peace in Thoma Merton", by Ross Labrie (Oh yeah, I can't remember if Matthew mentioned it, but this conference was Co-sponsored with the Thomas Merton Society of Canada, so the in between sessions were about him and his writings...pretty facinating fellow!) So after that there were 3 more concurrent sessions: "Deep Structural Fear", by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, "Exploring a Pedagogy of Peace through Public Confession", by Sean Wiebe and Mark Daley, and "Antidotes to Fear: A Conversation on Religions Capacity, by Zohra Husaini (who got a ride down to Camrose with Matthew and I....very beautiful person :), Virindra Lamba, & David Goa.....The day ended with Matthew and I singing the Akathist "Glory to God for All things" (hey! did you know that Akathist meant not sitting?....well, I didn't anyways :). So, that was really fun and it was a great way to end the conference....by acknowledging that Everything in God is for Glory.

Here is a pretty amazing prayer written my Thomas Merton that I just thought was definitely worth sharing - Thoughts in Solitude
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will doesn not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alones + + + (from the Abbey of Gethsemani)

I also thought this cool: From the ancient Jain religion of India, I thought this to be intriguing...that they do not even eat certain vegetables that have roots, because they have an immense respect for life. I just thought about how we too need to examine those things in our life that Have taken root that bring life to ourselves and those around us and to nuture those roots. As well to recongnize the roots within our brothers and sisters that bring them life and to help nurture that life in others and not to pull that life from the root. Also important, to examine those things that have taken root that are not healthy, and not from the Lord....those need to be pulled from the root to leave even more room for the life in us to take root.

We also went to this awesome cd release last night of our dear friend Amy Seeley....it was so great! Matthew and/or I will most likely tell you about it later......This afternoon were off to the final talk from Jim forest titled "Love Your Enemies as Yourself" :)

Sunday evening concluded with a great evening together at David and Anna's place. Here's one of Jim's photos of David, Krista, and I in the living room.