Phileena Heuertz and Christian Contemplation

Phileena Heuertz is a founding partner of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism and the author of Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation. Today, Phileena shares her journey from Bible belt roots to learning from some of the last century’s greatest contemplatives. The journey made her confront great suffering, the masks she was wearing, and her own feelings that drove her work. Phileena works as a spiritual director and you will hear her care for those who need a light in the darkness to find themselves in Him.

Listen to Phileena’s story today!

Stories Phileena shared:

• Growing up as a pastor’s kid in the Midwest
• The assumptions she made about God, herself, and the world living in the Bible belt
• How witnessing suffering caused her to question God’s goodness
• Realizing that she experienced a lack of love
• Wrestling with finding herself in Christ
• The difference between participation with God and trying to be Jesus in the world
• Realizing some of the masks she was wearing
• The work she does with the Gravity Center
• Why she wrote Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation
• Meeting Thomas Keating

Great quotes from Phileena:

I had a lot to learn as I made my way out of the Bible belt in the middle of America into a world with great suffering.

Jesus is not limited to words on a page. Those words are a gateway to the very living presence that is from the beginning and will be forever and ever. It’s that presence that we want to connect with.

We have to move from the head to the heart to the body.

Resources we mentioned:

• Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation
• The Gravity Center for Contemplative Activism
• Videos for Mindful Silence
• Step by Step on the Camino episode of Halfway There
• Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life

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