Exploring Contemplation + Mysticism Through a Queer Lens
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Loving the Questions
“Your questions are of the devil,” I was told at an evangelical youth conference in high school. My insides responded confused, “huh? What the hell just happened?!” But, instead of speaking up, I went along with the adult in the room and regretfully shut my mouth. Read more
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Patient Endurance: A Conversation with Sister Barbara Jean LaRochester
Sister Barbara Jean LaRochester is a Carmelite nun in Baltimore, where she’s been a Catholic sister since 1972. Previously, she spent 17 years in Philadelphia as an active nun working in a Catholic hospital and teaching on the weekends. She was also a board member of the National Black Sisters Conference and was active in the Read more
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We Are Interconnected: A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey
In her book Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey writes, “Black spirituality is deeper than-and can also be absent from-any relationship with the Church universal. Black spirituality, especially Black women’s spirituality, is connected to our very being.” In this episode of Contemplating Now, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey shares about contemplation’s… Read more
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Everybody Can Be A Mystic: A Conversation with Therese Taylor-Stinson
A transcript for the podcast “Contemplating Now: Episode 1 with Therese Taylor-Stinson” Read more
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New Podcast: Contemplating Now
NEW PODCAST ALERT 🚨 Contemplation has been a part of my life since I was a child taking long walks to pause and process. In 2011, after reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, I quit my job and traveled to all 17 Trappist monasteries in the United States. But as I journeyed, I sensed Read more
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My White Problem
Adapted into an Op-Ed in the IndyStar If the news in America has flashed across your screen in any manner, then you know that ignorance and white supremacy culture are on full display. It’s easy to name it, scoff at it, recognize it as damaging, and know—or think, one is on the right side of Read more
What would it mean to queer contemplation? To disentangle contemplative spirituality from heteronormativity, patriarchy, and Eurocentricity, and instead engage with openness, curiosity, and a little weirdness?
Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality
Contemplation
Contemplation as a daily practice of reflection + action.
Mysticism
Mysticism as an accessible encounter of interconnection to self + others + the Divine.
Activism
Social Justice activism as the pursuit of love + liberation for all.
“Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious people are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves…”
— Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Dr. Cassidy Hall, DMin, MDiv, MTS, MA 