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Contemplative Connection
May 2025 - Mid Month Newsletter
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At The Heart of Matter
Summer is quickly approaching, and with it warmer temperatures, popping buds, and emerging color. We are also invited to emerge and join in with what creation is doing around us. Most of us have already started answering the call by ending our winter cloistering and spending more time outside this spring.
Our connection to the earth is vital to our spiritual and physical wellness. As Ilia Delio says, “matter matters”. Whether it is a daily walk, gardening, or standing barefoot in the yard, our connection to nature nourishes us, grounds us, and includes us in the inter-being of things. There are a plethora of practices and habits that cultivate this connection. As Jim Finley says, “find your practice and practice it,” and when you feel called to a new one, there are an infinite number of resources to draw from.
One need not go far, the backyard will do. One need not make it complicated or even consecrated because the very ground you stand on is already holy. We each stand on Holy ground, connecting and co-creating with the creator of it all.
- Adam
Mary Oliver “The Summer Day”
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Quick Notes
Join us for a new Contemplative Social Transformation Group with Rev. Zac Wolfe. Check out all of the information below.
Sunday Gathering. Gathering to Grow: A Contemplative Sunday Gathering. Simple-Contemplative-Communal. - Join us online for our Sunday Gathering where we practice, worship, process, and close with Communion. We meet for an hour to 75 minutes via Zoom.
Every Sunday at 11:00am
There will be no Prairie Church this month, we will resume on June 14th.
98% of our budget comes from your generous donations and support. Consider donating or setting up a recurring donation to support our ongoing activities.
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Join Us For A New Contemplative Social Transformation Group
with Rev. Zac Wolfe
8 Meetings: Beginning Sunday, May 18th & Tuesday, May 20th
In the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo offered a vital guide for how to talk about important issues of race and racism in society. With Be A Revolution: How Everyday People are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too, Oluo aims to show how people are working to create real positive change in our structures. Looking at many of our most powerful systems—like education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more—she highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity. She also illustrates various ways in which the listener can find entryways into change in these same areas, or can bring some of this important work being done elsewhere to where they live.
This book aims to not only be educational, but to inspire action and change. Oluo wishes to take our conversations on race and racism out of a place of pure pain and trauma, and into a place of loving action. Be A Revolution is both an urgent chronicle of this important moment in history, as well as an inspiring and restorative call for action.
Our study group is a safe space for participants to reflect and share personal and communal experiences. Everyone is free to share without fear of being scolded or shamed for accidentally saying something that may be contradictory to what we are challenged to see, understand, and enact. Participants share, learn, make mistakes, and grow together in our engagement with material, each other, and the world around us.
We will meet 8 times via Zoom from May through August. We read a section of Be a Revolution in preparation for each gathering with other supplemental resources offered as well. We currently have two groups you can join. One will meet on Tuesday’s from 1:30pm-2:30pm and the other group will meet Sundays 7:30pm-8:30pm. Tuesday’s group starts meeting on May 20th, and Sunday's group starts meeting on May 18th.
If you want to participate but can't make it on Sunday or Tuesday, or already have a group of your own that is interested, indicate that on the registration and I'll reach out to you.
You are encouraged to invite your friends and others who would be interested! Since it is on Zoom, you can join from anywhere!
Groups are facilitated by Rev. Zac Wolfe, Director of Social Transformation and Pastor for Contemplate Lincoln. Contact Zac at zac@contemplatelincoln.org with questions.
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Next Meeting: June 14th at 10:00am
(Every 2nd Saturday of Each Month at 10:00am)
Join us for our monthly celebration on the prairie with drumming, short reading reflections, meditation, and a mindfulness walk through the majestic trails of Pioneers Park. Those who don’t wish to walk may sit on the Nature Center deck that faces a beautiful prairie and buffalo. We often close with a drumming circle (no experience required).
We will gather for about 30 minutes for reflections, drumming, and meditation before walking trails and regathering for a brief time of sharing.
We will meet inside the auditorium at the Nature Center. During colder months, we will meet for one hour and have a shorter walking time. In the warmer months, we will meet for 75 minutes and often meet on the back deck, weather permitting.
Bring a chair, a water bottle, and a drum. Some drums will be provided.
Nature Center and Deck are wheelchair accessible.
Location:
The Nature Center at Pioneers Park
3201 S. Coddington Ave
South Coddington- Lincoln, NE 68522
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Saturday, June 14 at 10:00 AM CDT
Prairie Church
Join us for our monthly celebration on the prairie with drumming, short reading reflections, meditation, and a mindfulness walk through the majestic trails of Pioneers Park. Those who don’t wish to walk may sit on the Nature Center deck that faces a beautiful prairie and buffalo. We often close with a drumming circle (no experience required). We...
RSVP
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Every Thursday at 7:00PM - 8:00PM
“Most of us assume addiction only affects others—those struggling with substances, gambling, or other self-destructive behaviors. Yet, addiction, at its core, is simply a pattern of unconscious habits. It emerges when we live on autopilot, reacting rather than choosing, grasping rather than allowing. We all have habitual ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that can limit our freedom and keep us from fully engaging with life. Healing isn’t reserved for crises; it’s available to anyone who wishes to live more skillfully, with greater awareness and intention. In essence, we are all in some form of recovery—from our conditioning, fears, and blind spots—as we continually navigate the tension between our illusions of control and life’s unfolding reality.”
— Patrick Dahlen
Join Our New Online Contemplative 12-Step Group
We invite you to embark on a transformative journey with our contemplative 12-Step group. Whether you’re a contemplative at heart, seeking deeper surrender to your Higher Power and Divine Source, examining unskillful life patterns, or simply looking for a non-dogmatic, transformational experience, this group is for you.
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Thursday, May 15 at 7:00 PM CDT
12- Step Gathering
RSVP
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On The Cathedral
RSVP on The Contemplative Cathedral to receive links, reminders, and updates. The Contemplative Cathedral also connects you to the larger community and ongoing conversation.
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Monday, May 19 at 1:00 PM CDT
Rooted Discussion Group
In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how c...
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Monday, June 2 at 1:00 PM CDT
Rooted Discussion Group
In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how c...
RSVP
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Monday, May 19 at 9:15 AM CDT
Lectio Divina
Join us as Pastor John Duling leads us in Lectio Divina often referred to as praying the scriptures. We read a small scripture several times with brief periods of silent reflection closing with a time of sharing.
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Monday, May 19 at 6:30 AM CDT
Monday's Contemplative Prayer Sit: A Space to Practice
Join us in community for a 20-minute contemplative prayer sit. You are welcome to use whatever your silent prayer or meditation practice may be (centering prayer, Jesus prayer, etc.). Instructions for Centering Prayer will be provided. We often begin with community time which includes a short poem or other invitation into conversation followed...
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Friday, May 16 at 4:30 PM CDT
Contemplative Movement
Contemplative Movement engages our physical selves in spiritual practice to promote wholeness, balancing activity with stillness. The practice is accessible by all body types and experience levels. Chairs, mats, cushions, straps, blocks, eye and bolster pillows may be used. Each practice may contain elements of body awareness, dance, yoga, praye...
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Sunday, May 18 at 11:00 AM CDT
Sunday Gathering
Gathering to Grow: A Contemplative Sunday Gathering Simple-Contemplative-Communal Join us online for our Sunday Gathering where we practice, worship, process, and close with Communion. We meet for an hour to 75 minutes via Zoom.
RSVP
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Sunday, May 18 at 2:00 PM CDT
Contemplative Conversations: Films, Videos, and Presentations
Join us for a time of contemplation and conversation centered around videos with insights from some of today's most influential theologians and spiritual teachers. Videos from The Work of the People and other sources include Richard Rohr, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Walter Brueggemann, Brene Brown, Barbara Brown Taylor, Barbara Holmes, Ilia Delio, and man...
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Tell Your Story & Support
Contemplate Lincoln & The Contemplative Cathedral
Help us tell the story of our community by sharing your experience. We know one of the best ways to invite others into our community is through the stories of those who have benefited from Contemplate Lincoln and The Contemplative Cathedral.
Excerpts from your gifts of sharing will be used in social media posts and newsletters. If you have benefited from our contemplative community consider adding your story through the link below.
Many Thanks,
Adam
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The Contemplative Cathedral
A Space to Deepen Your Spiritual Life
Join us online for contemplation and community. So many of us on the contemplative path eventually get to the point where we can go no further alone. The Contemplative Cathedral is a response to the inner yearning of many contemplatives for community. It looks a little like other social media platforms, but it is so much more. It's a space to conspire, connect, and contemplate, and our online home for all of our event info (both online & in-person), links, and groups. It also serves as a way to stay connected in between events.
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Meeting Links
Below are the Zoom links to events (Central Time Zone)
Sign up on The Contemplative Cathedral to receive alerts, and reminders, and be part of the ongoing conversation.
Lectio Divina - Mondays at 9:15AM: Link
Contemplative Prayer Lab - Mondays at 6:30AM: Link
Contemplative Movement - Fridays at 4:30PM: Link
Sunday Gatherings - Sunday’s at 11:00AM: Link
Contemplative Conversations - Sundays at 2:00PM: Link
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PO BOX 29341, Lincoln, NE 68529
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