Featured Events

wednesdays | 6:30PM | online study, starting September 23, 2025

book study: Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master, The Essential Writings

We will be working through selected portions of the book, Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master edited by Lawrence Cunningham, an anthology of Merton’s essential writings. We won’t go through the whole book, but will select the most pertinent passages and excerpts to get a sense of the breadth and thought of Thomas Merton, a huge figure in American spirituality who largely brought the concept and practice of contemplation back to American consciousness.

If you’re not familiar, Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century and one of the true spiritual masters America has produced. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has millions of copies in print and translated into over fifteen languages. He wrote over sixty other books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms race.

After a rambunctious youth and adolescence, Merton converted to Roman Catholicism and entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, the most ascetic Roman Catholic monastic order. The twenty-seven years he spent in Gethsemani brought profound changes in his self-understanding, an ongoing conversion that impelled him into the political arena, where he became “the conscience of the peace movement of the 1960’s.” For his social activism Merton endured severe criticism, from Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who assailed his political writings as unbecoming of a monk.

During his last years, he became deeply interested in Asian religions and in promoting East-West dialogue. After several meetings with Merton during his trip to the Far East in 1968, the Dali Lama praised him as having a more profound understanding of Buddhism than any other Christian he had known. During this trip to a conference on East-West monastic dialogue, Merton died in Bangkok on December 10, 1968, the victim of an accidental electrocution. The date marked the twenty-seventh anniversary of his entrance to Gethsemani.

This anthology contains essential texts written over the course of Merton’s monastic career and are divided into autobiographical and spiritual writings, though it is difficult to separate Merton from his spiritual questions and experiences.  He was a rare individual who was equipped by life experience to articulate the deep hungers of the modern mind.

Order your book as soon as possible. The Amazon link is here.

Our weekly book study meets online via Zoom connection, Wednesday evenings @ 6:30P PST. Click here for links and more information. Come join us to dive into a different world of experience and a different level of presence. Hope to see you on the little screen for this!

And if you want to see our archives of past book studies and workshops, click here to visit our Workshop Youtube channel.

wednesdays | 6:30PM | online study, starting July 9th, 2025

book study: Roaming Free Inside the Cage: A Daoist Approach to the Enneagram and Spiritual Transformation

We are working through the book, Roaming Free Inside the Cage by William Schafer PhD. The subtitle, A Daoist Approach to the Enneagram and Spiritual Transformation, brings multiple layers of meaning to a study of the Enneagram. Ancient Chinese Dao’s insistence that we won’t find our Way in isolation or the abstract, but inextricably tied to the substance of each lived moment, is the hallmark of Jesus’ Way and Kingdom, so the Enneagram takes on much more than a personality typing system. It becomes another tool for self-discovery, healing, and transformation.

Book summary from Amazon:
We are born with our hearts and arms open wide-trusting, confident, and brimming with vibrant life energy. Over time, though, the challenges of life constrain that flow, leaving us unbalanced. We often find ourselves stuck in inertia, exhausted by overdoing, or strained and preoccupied with trying to control everything. Roaming Free Inside the Cage will help you identify your unique pattern of imbalance and reclaim your inborn freedom so that you can move forward with clarity of vision, confidence in your own power, and composure in the face of life’s adversities. “There is much to digest and absorb here, principles and practices, history, symbolism, and poetic expression. This work requires only the caution that, as in much that is written about the Enneagram, we are dealing with subjective internal experience rather than objective external measurement. This is a book on experience of, rather than knowledge about. Come to it with a willingness to use the principles of optimal learning, be receptive and grounded in order to open your heart and mind with curiosity, and have the expectation of benefit. Then you will indeed benefit greatly from this fundamental, deep and penetrating work on the Enneagram and the Dao.” -David Daniels, M.D., September 2009, Clinical Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford Medical School

Order your book as soon as possible. The Amazon link is here.

Our weekly book study meets online via Zoom connection, Wednesday evenings @ 6:30P PST. Click here for links and more information. Come join us to dive into a different world of experience and a different level of presence. Hope to see you on the little screen for this!

And if you want to see our archives of past book studies and workshops, click here to visit our Workshop Youtube channel.

tuesdays | 6:30 PM | online

Conversations: applying faith to life

Sunday morning messages go by quickly.

And the format doesn’t give time for the processing and discussion that gets us down to real understanding–and maybe more importantly, how concepts and issues actually apply to daily life and make it better. Tuesday evenings, we’ll dig back into material from the previous Sunday to discuss, dive into completely new topics, hear personal stories, see how our faith applies to real life…and makes it better.

Conversations is held online via Zoom connection. Click here for links and more information. Join us Tuesdays: 6:30PM PST.

And if you want to see our archives of past book studies and workshops, click here to visit our Workshop Youtube channel.

first mondays of month | 6:30 PM | online gathering

Prayer: stronger together

Since the pandemic started, we’ve been isolated to one degree or another, and the issues we face individually and collectively, in our families, community, nation, globe seem to have increased exponentially.

Praying together and having time to talk about the issues we face and for what we’re grateful, to listen and support and realize God’s empowerment in our lives is what this gathering is all about. Come join us online to pray and support each other when we need it most.

You can pray with us through Zoom connection online. Click here for links and more information.

Join us on the first Monday of each month: 6:30PM PST.