A conversation with Sicco Claus & Stuart Higginbotham
This summer it will be three years ago that a group of young contemplative leaders met in Snowmass Abbey, the monastery of amongst others the late Thomas Keating. Sicco Claus, one of the contributors of our website ‘A Contemplative Path through the Crisis’, was one of the participants in this exchange. On the invitation of the founders of these Christian contemplative movements they came together to reflect on what they saw as the future of contemplative life.
One of the fruits of this exchange is the volume ‘Contemplation and Community’. Sarah Bachelard, Leonardo Correa and Sicco Claus wrote a chapter for this book.
Another participant in this meeting and one of the two editors of this book was father Stuart Higginbotham. Sicco Claus was triggered by Stuart’s ambition to invite his whole parish to join him on the journey of silence, stillness and simplicity. At the moment of the meeting in Snowmass this contemplative journey was already three years long. Sicco decided to contact Stuart again after he read his text ‘A Pandemic Priesthood’ in which this Episcopal priest reflects on how he understands his vocation in these times of crisis. He agreed in having a conversation about it for our website.
Celebrating Alternatively (part 1)
Food smells and incarnation (part 2)
“My sense of fear, of being anxious is the normal everyday feeling of so many people in the world. I wanted to hide my own sense of compassion, rather than reacting out of my ego sense of wanting to assert controlled, of making myself feel better in that moment. so the only way I know how to tolerate that tension is through my own practice, to be able to go into my room and pay attention to my own heart. and listen to that and come out of that in a much more compassionate posture”
The thought that we are separated (part 3)
Deepening the practice as a way to creativity and hope (part 4)
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