The Blessings of Aging (Spirituality & Practice)


Source: Spirituality & Practice

There is a difference, Joan Chittister notes, between age, aging, aged, ag’ed, and ripened. Through this program, Chittister reframes aging and encourages us to discover through reflection and practice what new perceptions and attitudes about growing older can mean for our own lives.

Joan Chittister, now in her 70s, has been a Benedictine nun for 50 years and is the founder of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality. One of their projects was the basis of the S&P retreat Creating a Monastery of the Heart; this monastic movement now involves 7,500 seekers from around the world. Profiled as one of S&P’s Living Spiritual Teachers, Chittister is the author of 40 books, including The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully (see below). For this online retreat, themes she introduced in that book become the launchpads for further reflections by Chittister.

Universal themes to be explored include:

• common challenges such as regret and fear;

• the quest for meaning as the passageway from doing to being;

• time as the crucible of maturity and the advantages of having a beginner’s mind;

• the joys of appreciation, understanding, and choices;

• the satisfaction and serenity of tasting the spiritual dimensions of life;

• spirituality, wisdom, and legacy.
Participants receive:

• 12 emails with links to other course content.

• Video messages from Joan Chittister.

• Additional wisdom, spiritual practices, journal prompts, and creative exercises to ground the teachings in an elder’s everyday life.

This is a glorious spiritual workshop for elders who are ready to complete in themselves all that has been neglected and postponed when they were younger — and it is for anyone of any age who is ready to embrace a vision of elderhood as a blessed time to be fully alive.

(4 CEHs for Chaplains available.)

Learn more about this course and register on Spirituality & Practice


Disclaimer: Sacred Space Online Learning (SSOL) seeks to provide individuals with information about religious, spiritual, or faith-based online resources from a variety of sources. Sacred Space Online Learning does NOT claim ownership over this online course or online offering. Sacred Space Online Learning is also NOT responsible for the accuracy of the materials, the content, the way they are advertised or taught, or the costs associated with this online course or offering. The views and opinions expressed in this online course or offering are those of the creators and/or the persons appearing in the online class or offering. They do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of SSOL, the OFLD, or MCC. If you have any questions or concerns please contact the creator(s) of the given online course or online offering.