Contemplating Now
Cassidy Hall explores the intersection of contemplation & social justice
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Episode 16: Sacred Attention | A conversation with Cole Arthur Riley
The creator of Black Liturgies has written a best-selling book about finding the sacred in her own skin.
Episode 15: The unnamed mystics | A conversation with Kimberly Russaw
The overlooked women of the Hebrew Bible can help us to see the overlooked people in our lives.
Episode 14: The sacred Black feminine | A conversation with Christena Cleveland
The author of God is a Black Woman went in search of the Black Madonnas.
Episode 13: Opening unto mystery | A conversation with Elyse Ambrose
Mysticism is an orientation to life.
Episode 12: The fierce call of love | A conversation with Jacqui Lewis
"Is there a loving way to call people in, not out?"
Episode 11: Breaking barriers | A conversation with Davelyn Hill
“When I devalue you, I lose myself."
Episode 10: Breathing mysticism | A conversation with Angela N. Parker
How do I replenish myself so that I can do what God has called me to do?
Episode 9: The privilege of contemplation | A conversation with Anthea Butler
"The word ‘contemplative’ at this moment is a word that says ‘privilege.’ It means that you have time, and most people don’t have time.”
Episode 8: Mysticism in the streets | A conversation with Leah Gunning Francis
“Every time I look in the eyes of the young people out there on the streets standing up, speaking up, I see mystics. I do.”
Episode 7: Fresh courage | A conversation with Lerita Coleman Brown
"I hope that we will abandon this idea that mysticism only happens to special people."
Episode 6: Heart work | A conversation with Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
"Understanding how racism really, really works, and seeing it as not just a social justice issue but a theological imperative, means that we have to talk about it and work on it all the time.”
Episode 5: Embodied and boundless | A conversation with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
“Practicing to be a contemplative," says Zen priest Sensei Zenju, "you’re learning to be embodied and to be boundless at the same time.”
Episode 4: Becoming a truth teller | A conversation with Sophfronia Scott
In the private journals of contemplative thinker Thomas Merton, Sophronia Scott found guidance for how to live in these fraught times.
Episode 3: Patient endurance | A conversation with Barbara Jean LaRochester
A contemplative Catholic nun touches the world through prayer.
Episode 2: We are interconnected | A conversation with Pamela Lightsey
We have a responsiblity to agitate for justice, but we can't lose our love for the human soul and its dignity in the midst of that work.
Episode 1: Everybody can be a mystic | A conversation with Therese Taylor-Stinson
The founder of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network talks about the importance of contemplative spirituality to social change.