This month the Fratres Dei team got together to compile poetry of our own creation about our experiences with embodied spirituality. We invite you to curl up and enjoy, and take a few moments to explore your own body's relationship with the Sacred. We also welcome you to leave a comment with your own poetry or musings. To My Body By Rachel Parsons, Founder Holy ash, animate dust Stunted conductor, demented cache I smell the winter in your nose, carry you from my bed, scan the

I thought I'd tell you all about a guided meditation I once tried that quickly became one of my favorites, and also a complete disaster. I've been meditating on and off for a year now, through a variety of apps, podcasts, tarot readings and the occasional Quaker service here in DC. I faced some of the same challenges that I've faced with yoga while trying to cobble together a semi-regular meditative practice. There is tension in meditation, in the desire to remain relaxed, ye

Sometimes it takes days, weeks, or months to see you’re beyond your limits. Sometimes it takes just as long to realize you’ve made a mistake. You learn about work-life balance. You realize the hours you work are isolating. You feel regularly taken advantage of. And you find it difficult, with everything else going on, to look for a way out. You’ve been at the first job you could find in a new city for over a year now. You worked at a different branch for four years before tha

It happens every single time. My mom drags me to her weekly Vinyasa Flow, or one of my friends has a coupon for a free class. I lumber my way through the poses, peek at other people for notes, realize that’s a huge mistake since they’re all practically levitating past me, and quickly return to figuring out what “legs shoulder-width apart” means. Finally, we all lay down. The instructor begins guiding us through the cool-down, saying things like “Consciously relax every indivi

In the pursuit of meaning, is Spiritual Direction a helpful avenue? Three Denver Area Spiritual Directors look at how Spiritual Direction intersects the universal questions of meaning and purpose, what it looks like to search for meaning within a Christian worldview, and whether or not Direction is a space of answers. Raul Cruz hosts. Rachel A. Parsons, MA, of Fratres Dei was slated to participate but was unable due to illness. In this episode we discuss: Purpose, identity, w

Hello wonder-workers and spiritual sojourners! It’s Saint, Fratres Dei’s social media manager and sometimes-theologian, back again to share a bit about my journey towards a more embodied faith practice. I was raised in a spiritual tradition almost entirely bereft of embodied ritual. This wasn’t necessarily my parent’s fault: I was very fortunate to grow up in a household that was supportive of both my Christian faith and of my asking tough questions. My parents always support

Social media is kind of my thing. I met my future spouse through Tumblr, I'm an author who promotes her work on Twitter, and, as some of you may know, I'm the digital communications manager for Fratres Dei Spiritual Direction & Ministries. Thoroughly a product of the digital age, I've been privileged to witness the best social media has to offer. I've seen friendships forged, beautiful art created, valuable information exchanged, and online spaces for religious expression blo

What is Spiritual Direction? Who is it for, and what does it do? We’re 4 Denver Area Spiritual Directors with a passion to educate on what Spiritual Direction is and how it’s a resource for your life and the lives of those around you. We’ve created this monthly panel to answer your questions around this ancient practice. Every month we’ll chat about a different topic relating to Spiritual Direction so we can cover everything you’d want to know. Join us live at: Converge Denve

What is Spiritual Direction? Who is it for, and what does it do? We’re 4 Denver Area Spiritual Directors with a passion to educate on what Spiritual Direction is and how it’s a resource for your life and the lives of those around you. We’ve created this monthly panel to answer your questions around this ancient practice. Every month we’ll chat about a different topic relating to Spiritual Direction so we can cover everything you’d want to know. Join us live at: Converge Denve

Right after I finished seminary, I, like most seminary grads, was in a harried state. I had spent the last couple years routinely facing my greatest struggles with God, theology, and life itself head-on, and I was spent. I felt like a toddler who had finally cried herself out and was ready for a nap. I had lived in the student apartments throughout my time at seminary, and I was preparing to move into an apartment across town. This apartment had a balcony. It was getting warm

What is Spiritual Direction? Who is it for, and what does it do? We’re 4 Denver Area Spiritual Directors with a passion to educate on what Spiritual Direction is and how it’s a resource for your life and the lives of those around you. We’ve created this monthly panel to answer your questions around this ancient practice. Every month we’ll chat about a different topic relating to Spiritual Direction so we can cover everything you’d want to know. Join us live at: Converge Denve

The year was...2016. I was working three part-time jobs: cramming my feet into high heels on the way to hospice chaplain visits and spiritual direction sessions by day and tripping over my master's degree to the closing shift at Caribou Coffee by night. While chain coffee bar backing is certainly one of the easier food service professions, anyone who has worked in such a position knows that the job is 0.05% espresso, 20% colorful customer personalities, and 79.95% cleaning up

When I was a good youth group kid, I was rip-roaring ready to convert my friends to Evangelical Protestantism (or "Christianity," as I called it). The Cosmic Narrative™ made so much sense to me: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. I was ready to do my part in bringing as many people into the fold as possible as my duty between the Redemption (sacrifice and resurrection of Christ) and the Restoration (eternity with God). "Duty." Singular. I had a lot of energy and willing

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. -Exodus 15:20-21 Little high school and college Rachel Ann liked to dance. A lot. I danced in theatre class between assignments to “Moving Clocks Run Slow” by We Were Promised Jetpacks. I danced in the car to “Sprawl II” by Arcade Fire. I danced on the roof of my university to “While You Wait for the Others” by Grizzly Bear. If I found a deliciously

Yadav was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, India. He had a Hindu upbringing, but when he moved to the United States to study he started to separate himself from his family’s belief system. He was comfortable not having specific religious involvement. He didn't feel a trite religion-shaped hole in his heart. He wasn't a subplot in God's Not Dead 5. Running had always been one of his favorite ways to spend some time alone, but he started to feel as though something peculiar was h

On a crisp October evening in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, my then boyfriend Daniel and I found ourselves skirting along an ever-darkening hiking path that, God-willing, would lead us back to my car. We had set out, as all respectable couples ought, to hike through bright orange autumnal aspen groves and to do some early evening star gazing. Confidence was high throughout the journey as we trod along in graceful obedience to the traditions of the harvest season. After spend

I talk a lot about bodies. I cannot overemphasize the inherently physical nature of our humanity and the importance of living into our human bodies as our essential selves. In this post I want to talk about how embodied spirituality is not an activity we perform apart from God but rather in the imitation of God. In other words, our physicality does not separate us from the Holy; it makes us more like it. It is through the incarnation of Christ that we come to better understan

Some days I find myself in euphoric rapture about the miracle of my physical being and in profound gratitude that I hail from a theological tradition that affirms the body as an essential component of human selfhood, and then I’ll see C. S. Lewis quoted, “You don’t have a soul; you are a soul. You have a body.” Sigh. Don’t throw your pipes away just yet, 20-something Christian guys. Mr. Lewis never actually said this. It was in fact his predecessor in the realm of theological