Opening Minds, Opening Hearts

This episode weaves together three healing modalities: 12-step recovery, psychotherapy, and Centering Prayer, through the wisdom and lived experience of Howard B. Howard shares what it truly means to accept our basic core of goodness as our true self, and why that acceptance becomes the foundation from which we can look at our shadow and false self. Together, we explore how this radical acceptance...

Welcome back to Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. In this episode, we are joined by Lawrence H, who was introduced to Centering Prayer while serving time at Folsom State Prison in 2009 and has since dedicated his life to sharing the practice with others. In a conversation full of honesty, hard-won wisdom and real hope, Lawrence shares what it truly means to bring our trauma into God's presence and al...

Welcome back, everyone! We are so glad you are joining us. In this episode, we are joined by the Reverend Nhien Vuong, contemplative teacher, ordained minister, founder of the Evolving Enneagram, and author of The Enneagram of the Soul, for a deeply personal and illuminating exploration of the Enneagram as a sacred companion to Centering Prayer on the journey of divine therapy. Together, we explor...

Welcome back to Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. In this episode, we are joined by two dear friends and beloved members of the Contemplative Outreach family, Pamela Begeman and Matt Scrimgeour, for a warm and honest dinner table conversation about Centering Prayer as divine therapy. Drawing on decades of lived experience with the practice, our guests share how Centering Prayer has been the foundatio...

We are so glad you are joining us for what promises to be a rich and deeply personal Season 4 of the Opening Minds Opening Hearts podcast. We’ll be exploring the theme of Divine Therapy: Healing the Emotional Wounds of a Lifetime, inspired by Father Thomas Keating's teaching that the purpose of divine therapy is to bring unconscious motivations to awareness and heal the wounds of a lifetime. Our g...

As we wrap up Season 3 of the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts podcast, we find ourselves reflecting on a season that has been both challenging and enlightening. We’ve had the privilege of engaging in conversations with guests from a variety of spiritual traditions, each offering profound insights into the nature of Ultimate Reality and non-duality from their spiritual traditions. It has been all abo...

Welcome back, everyone! We’re so glad you’re joining us as we introduce our final guest of the season. It’s hard to believe how quickly this season has flown by, but we’re wrapping things up with a truly special guest in this episode. Sister Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun who has been deeply involved in interreligious dialogue and contemplative practices for decades. Sister Meg shares her...

Welcome to another episode of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. This time, we are joined by Abdul-Rehman Malik, affectionately known as AR, an award-winning journalist, educator, and cultural organizer whose life story is deeply intertwined with themes of migration, faith, and social justice. As a lecturer at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs, AR directs a leadership...

As we continue this season's theme of expanding the boundaries of our faith tradition by creating space for dialogue with our brothers and sisters deeply rooted in other spiritual traditions, we’re delighted to welcome Dr. Yuria Celidwen. She will guide us in exploring contemplative practices from an Indigenous perspective. Yuria was born to Nahua and Maya indigenous lineages in the cloud forest o...

We’re back again and excited to be having a conversation with Kaira Jewel Lingo in this episode. Kaira is a Dharma teacher and mindfulness practitioner with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. She works in Engaged Buddhism, which was developed by one of her teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, and draws a lot of her experience from her parents' lives of service, in particular, her dad's...

As we take a moment to reflect halfway through the season, we're struck by the rich dialogues we've been having. Our guests have shared such profound insights, and it's been truly transformative. We’re delighted you can join us as we explore the many ways these conversations have reshaped and deepened our understanding. What's been particularly special is how accessible our guests have been—spirit...

These conversations with our guests this season have been a profound privilege and truly humbling experience. Together, Colleen and Mark have embraced the role of students, exploring contemplative practice and meditation from diverse perspectives, and our guest in this episode is offering us some profound insights into the wisdom of the mystics within the Christian perspective. We are honored to ‘...

In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Mirabai Starr, an acclaimed author, translator of sacred writings, and interspiritual teacher. Her insights blend timeless wisdom with a modern perspective, focusing on contemplative spirituality, the experience of grief, and the profound beauty found in everyday life. With two decades of experience in teaching philosophy and world religions,...

We’re thrilled to share this conversation with Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest whose insights into spirituality have transformed our understanding of connecting with Ultimate Reality. Cynthia is a modern-day mystic with a diverse background in contemplative spirituality, theology, and interspiritual dialogue. Known worldwide as a retreat leader and author, she divides her time between her...

We are excited to kick off our first guest conversation of the season with Netanel Miles-Yépez. He is an artist, philosopher, religious scholar, and spiritual teacher deeply involved in the interspiritual movement. Netanel is also a co-founder of the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality and has authored several books, including The End of Religion and Other Writings. As the...

Welcome back to season three of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. We are your hosts, Colleen Thomas and Mark Dannenfelser, and we’re so excited to set the scene for the rest of the season in this episode. We’ll be shifting the dialogue away from the method of centering prayer and centering prayer as a practice that leads us to a form of personal transformation into the impact of centering prayer on o...

Welcome back to season three of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts! This season, we're shifting our focus to explore the later teachings of Thomas Keating. Our conversations will feature interspiritual and interreligious insights from guests representing various spiritual traditions. These dialogues will be guided by theological principle #11: “We affirm our solidarity with the contemplative dimension...

Welcome back to the final episode of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts for this season! We have enjoyed the thought-provoking conversations we’ve had with our guests this season and today we are excited to speak with Cynthia Bourgealt. Cynthia is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She divides her time between solitude and sailing the waters around...

Centering Prayer is a practice that changes the way we see the world from the inside out and is important for our well-being both physically and mentally. To help us reflect on this important principle, we are excited to welcome Fr. Greg Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. Fr. Greg was born and raised in Los An...

Today we will discuss the evolving and expanding community of Contemplative Outreach and Centering Prayer. We have a special guest, The Very Reverend Michael Battle, Ph. D. a theologian, professor, author, and speaker. He is the author of 11 books including his most recent title, Desmond Tutu, A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor. We explore “ubuntu” the African proverb that teaches w...

On today’s episode, we will explore the changing needs of Christian contemplatives through a thought-provoking conversation with our guest, Keith Kristich. Keith is a writer, retreat leader, and founder of the online contemplative community, Closer Than Breath. His mission is to help people unlearn rigid religion, reimagine what is divine, and see God everywhere. Keith is a commissioned presenter...

On today’s episode of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts, we hear from Dr. Rory McEntee, a religion scholar and philosopher-theologian working at an intersection of contemplative life, education, social justice, and culture. Today we will discuss the support and difficulties that come with being in community, how empathy comes from our own uniqueness and manifestation of God on Earth, and what Rory fee...

On today’s episode of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts, we are delighted to welcome Heather Ruce who will help us dive into the deepening practice of Centering Prayer, a Wisdom Spiritual Director who facilitates Wisdom Practices and hosts retreats at schools focused on the Christian Wisdom Tradition. Heather weaves the lineage of teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault, into her work and training including Famil...

On today’s episode, we speak with Gigi Ross, who began practicing Centering Prayer after attending an introductory workshop in 1998. Gigi has been a Spiritual Director since 2000 and worked as an Associate Director at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Foundation. She also served on the leadership team for Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington from 2003 to 2005. She is currently workin...

On today’s episode, we talk with Phileena Nikole who is well known in contemplative communities and spaces where she works as a Spiritual Director and Centering Prayer Practitioner. Phileena spent her early adult life in social justice work with poor and marginalized communities. This work led her to more than 70 countries where she helped to build community among victims of human trafficking, HIV...