Contemplify

Lo-Fi & Hushed is weekly space for the contemplative practice of lectio divina with poetry. This practice is graceful, transformative, and subdued. Lo-Fi & Hushed is available worldwide, on Riverside livestream, and you can participate from the hallows of your own home. “I do not complain of suffering for love, it becomes me always to submit to her, whether she commands in storm or stillness, one can know her only in herself. This is an unconceivable wonder. Which has thus filled my heart and makes me stray in a wild desert.” — Hadewijch of Antwerp Visit https://contemplify.com/hushnow/ to learn more.

"David Shumate's High Water Mark is absolutely fresh and unpredictable. . . . You will be surprised by your confrontation with the utterly first rate." — Jim Harrison David Shumate is the author of The Floating Bridge and High Water Mark, winner of the 2003 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. His poetry has appeared widely in literary journals and has been anthologized in Good Poems for Hard Times, The Best American Poetry and The Writer’s Almanac. Shumate is poet-in-residence at Marian University and lives in Zionsville, Indiana. David and I talk about poems that surprise you, the elemental essence that gardening, cooking, contemplation, poetry share, what it means to follow the brush, culturing of wisdom is at the heart of the arts, and much more. David also reads a few of his poems including one of my all-time favorites, “Teaching a Child the Art of Confession”. Visit contemplify.com

Douglas E. Christie, Ph.D., is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Early Christian Monasticism; The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology; and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss and the Common Life. He is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus and served as co-director of the Casa de la Mateada Program in Córdoba, Argentina from 2013-2015. Doug and I talk about why the poetic and apophatic theology of Hadejwich of Antwerp and Jan Van Ruusbroec might be important for our times, incarnational risk and AI, kindness as a spiritual practice and much more. Listen to Doug's first appearance on Contemplify here. Visit contemplify.com for the shownotes.  

Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is an author, teacher, poet, and award-winning translator of spiritual texts. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence. Her dynamic work around the evolution of language and the necessity of just and inclusive language has garnered interest from various media, including the BBC and NPR’s Morning Edition. A Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year and Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Acevedo Butcher teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs. Carmen and I talk about the mystics that allure, the noetic power of language, necessity of compassion and so much more.   Visit contemplfiy.com for shownotes.

Lisa Wells is an author, poet, and co-founder of a small, nonprofit press based in Seattle, Washington called Letter Machine Editions. Her latest work is Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World. In Believers Lisa locates folks who meet the climate catastrophe with a fierce and loving gaze, with their sights on restoring humanity’s relationship with the planet as best they can. With a poetic and engaging pen, Lisa continually asks how then shall we live? Lisa and I talk about despair and love, trash as the shadow of our culture, doing the best we can, dropping out of high school and joining a wilderness school, and much more.  Visit Lisa at lisawellswriter.com or lettermachine.org. Visit Contemplify.com

Scott Avett is a visual artist, musician, and songwriter. No amount of descriptors quite do him justice. Scott’s work was met by my ears before my eyes. His songs slip into the ear stream, reverberate off the rib cage and remind the heart it was born free. Scott’s paintings hold your gaze in absorption, jostle you awake, and drop you off a block later. In our conversation today Scott and I talk about creativity and contemplation, mysterious inputs that need to be absence of the thought of outputs, the study of sacred texts, parenting and death, and much more.  Visit Contemplify.com for show notes. Visit Scott at scottavett.com or theavettbrothers.com | IG: @avettar | T: @ScottAvett

    Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator born in New York City of Iranian descent. Her latest work, is a translation of Rumi poems entitled Gold. I first heard one of her translations of Rumi sitting around a campfire on a Sunday morning in Patagonia, Arizona. I was bit by the passion and this conversation does not disappoint. Haleh and I converse about being raised in a family that celebrates poetry, how a translator’s work is never done alone, what clergy of today might learn from Rumi’s transformation, translating as a spiritual practice, and much more. Visit Haleh at halehliza.com | @halehliza Visit contemplify.com

Belden Lane is Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, author of numerous books including The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality and Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice. Belden Lane is a true elder, and in our conversation he exhibits that when we  talk about wild places, the rough play and laughter of God, grief after losing a son, what we can learn from trees, and much more. Visit contemplify.com 

Good poetry is inherently spiritual. It is a clown car of interpretation. Once a door of perception is opened, endless and surprising “Ahas” tumble out. When you have a spiritual teacher who embodies a poem, their words become thunder and contemplation soaks you. Get a taste of Season Four of Contemplify. First full episode is out in a week.   slide over to contemplify.com

A musing on practice, desire, and its evolutions vist contemplify.com

I was overly giddy, strangely nervous, but above all grateful to be in conversation with James Finley about his breathtaking new book, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. Each page is a thousand pages deep, that is how Jim walks about the world, drawing from the depths and teaching with winsome grace, poetics, and of course, wisdom. I have read The Healing Path twice now and I don’t see an end to rereading it, it charts the unfolding of Jim’s life; terrorizing trauma and abuse he endured as a child and at the monastery, graced invitations of transformative amidst the anguish, spiritual guidance from Thomas Merton, the richness of marriage to his beloved late wife, Maureen, and so much more. Learn more about this episode at contemplify.com.

A musing inspired by Shawn Askinosie's story about Belgium beer brewing monks and the parables of Jesus from Feb 2023   vist contemplify.com

A musing on Bill Holm's "Horizontal Grandeur" pulled from his book of essays, The Music of Failure.

A musing on the present moment of awareness that holds everything. 

Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the United States and has authored Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation, and co-authored Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (with Matthew Fox), and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living (with Rory McEntee). His work has been has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, Harper’s Magazine, New York Daily News, and Sojourner Magazine and he currently serves as a director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination and the Cathedral of the Incarnation serving Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island in New York. Follow Adam on social media: Twitter | Instagram Visit Contemplify.com

Musing from November 9th, 2022 inspired by by reading Chris Dombrowski's The River You Touch   Visit contemplify.com

Fr. David Denny is a lifelong  seeker whose commitment to the unfolding mystery of life has brought him to explore the deserts of place and soul.  In 1975 Fr Dave entered the Spiritual Life Institute, a contemplative monastic community rooted in the Carmelite tradition. And in 2005, he left that community to co-found the Desert Foundation with Tessa Bielecki. A writer, a poet, retreat master and teacher, Fr. Dave now hangs his hat in Tucson, Arizona.  In our conversation, Fr. Dave and I talk about the roundabouts, the striking insights, the totality of the journey of his life that lead him to be an urban hermit. Fr. David Denny has co-authored Seasons of Glad Songs: A Christmas Anthology, Desert Voices: The Edge Effect and is a part of the collection The Nature of Desert Nature edited by Gary Nabhan. Visit Fr. Dave’s website: sandandsky.org Visit contemplify.com

I have been waiting years to have this conversation with author, poet, and fly-fishing guide Chris Dombrowski. There is a kinship I feel with Chris's lens on life. He is a top-shelf writer to boot. The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water comes out October 11th, 2022. I have read it and pre-ordered multiple copies for friends and family. If you are a longtime listener, you know I do not ever do a hard sell. Buy this book for yourself. And another for any friend who seeks to live a mindful and creative life in the throes of responsibility to family, self, community, and a little plot of land on the planet. Published by the fine folks at Milkweed Editions, they will ship The River You Touch for free when your order from milkweed.org before October 11th, 2022. Alright, I am getting off my soapbox.  Chris Dombrowski is a poet, author, teacher, and fly-fishing guide. His nonfiction debut, Body of Water: A Sage, A Seeker, and the World’s Most Alluring Fish (Milkweed Editions, 2016), was hailed in The New

Musing from September 16, 2022 visit contemplify.com

I asked Todd Davis if he could read some of his poems from his latest collection called Coffin Honey. And he generously said yes. Take a beath, find a comfortable seat, preferably out of doors and let the poetry of Todd Davis seep in through your pores and raise forth the best of you. **Before we get started, I want to note that in this episode of poems from Todd Davis include content about sexual assault and self mutilation. If that sounds like poetry you are not comfortable listening to, we sure understand. Take care of yourself.** All of the poems included here are from Todd’s latest book of poems, Coffin Honey. Visit Todd’s website at todddavispoet.com to comb through and order all of his work of poetry.  Enjoy the work of Todd Davis. Visit contemplify.com