Return to the Sacred Heart of Italy
A Global Pilgrimage
Meditation & Dialogue Retreat
August 1-11, 2021
Live On Site or Online
A living mandala spanning the Earth...
Anchored by each of us & the power of Assisi
On Site:
If you are looking for an opportunity to sink into depth, join us for our second global pilgrimage to one of the most powerful spiritual places in Europe–Assisi. Assisi, like Mecca, Jerusalem, or Varanasi, is one of the most visited pilgrimage places in the world. Through 800 years, pilgrims have brought their most heartfelt intentions to this beautiful spot that now it resonates with a spiritual power that is stunning.
This year we will emphasize the life of St. Clare, who was St. Francis’s partner in renewing the spiritual heart of the Catholic Church almost a thousand years ago. Their unique partnership in Spirit still inspires. We will have time in Assisi to visit the places special to St. Clare.
After our time in Assisi, we travel to Casa della Pace, nestled in the verdant hills of Umbria directly east of Assisi. The Casa was inspired by J. Krishnamurti, whose teachings will also be a touchstone for our contemplation. Our retreat is nondenominational, blending sacred texts from many traditions to celebrate our deepest human potential.
The group gathered at the Casa will be at the center of a global mandala of sacred consciousness created by all participants worldwide. Our hope is that, together, we can create a living mandala of sacred interconnection with each other and all of Life.
Online:
Have you always wanted to visit Assisi? Even as Europe is opening up to receive travellers, many will not be making a trip or going on retreat this summer. Last year we all discovered how powerful it could be to join through technology and our connected hearts in a virtual pilgrimage to Assisi. You are warmly invited to join us on retreat this year. We will bring you with us via Zoom not only to St. Francis’s Basilica and his forest monastery, but also visit places sacred to St. Clare, who was St. Francis’s spiritual partner. Then we will share in silent meditation from the small refurbished chapel at Casa della Pace, in the hills of Umbria.
Santi Borgni, the owner of and chief chef of the Casa will teach you how to cook one beautiful Italian vegetarian meal per day so that we can share a meal together around the world. We invite you, alone or with friends, to create your own retreat space in your home or in a beautiful spot that you choose. You can join us for one, three, six…or as many hours of meditation as you like via live feed from Umbria. We offer this to you on a donation basis. Our hope is to create a living mandala centered on the power of St. Francis, St. Clare, Krishnamurti, and other sages and saints who gave their lives to a vision of wholeness and the interconnection of all of Life.
Our Guides
Thomas Steininger and Elizabeth Debold are responsible for guiding the retreat. They each have over thirty years experience as meditators, and have been supporting others in developing their capacity to meditate for two decades. They are also pioneers of emergent dialogue, a practice of meeting in what they call the HigherWe where human beings experience the potential of living in the awareness of wholeness.
Elizabeth is a developmental psychologist with a life-long passion for evolving how we are men and women. Her experience is that creating HigherWe spaces through dialogue provides a new way of understanding ourselves as embodied human beings. An author, writer, and editor of evolve-magazin, her work explores the intersection of cultural and gender development. Along with Thomas Steininger, she guides the development of emerge bewusstseinskultur e.V., which is both a community of practice and a charitable education association. She founded One World in Dialogue, which seeks to create a new global awareness of unity-in-diversity and diversity-in-unity.
Thomas is a philosopher, practitioner, and spiritual mentor, who has immersed himself in the practice of meditation and in exploring the evolution of human consciousness, particularly the current transition from a hyperindividual “I” culture to a co-conscious “We.” An authority on cultural evolution and the different spiritual and religious currents that have formed our postmodern world, he brings this perspective to his position as publisher of evolve-magazin, the leading German magazine on consciousness and culture. He is also the voice of Radio evolve, a weekly webcast. He has co-founded and developed a process of emergent dialogue, an advanced practice in conscious communication.
Santi Borgni founded Casa della Pace, “house of peace,” inspired by the teachings and dialogue practice of J. Krishnamurti. He embodies the spirit of the place, hosting his visitors with an exquisite sensitivity. For our retreat, Santi will treat us to his farm-fresh Italian vegetarian cuisine. And, if we are lucky, will join us in dialogue…
Sources of Wisdom & Depth
We bring together the teachings of women and men, sages and saints, poets and composers to inspire us to abandon ourselves to the depth of meditation. Readings, and sometimes music, chosen for each day as appropriate to the progress of the retreat, bring our own awareness into resonance with the consciousness of these extraordinary humans. Each retreat is different, tailored to the situation as it arises. The themes of the retreat are developed in this way, taken in deeply during meditation, and then explored together through emergent dialogue practice.
Pictured above are voices we have worked with in past retreats: St. Francis, J. Krishnamurti, St. Clare, Vimala Thakar, Lao Tzu, and Thich Nhat Hanh.