In our flow through life, that span allotted each of us, whether long or short, is a journey, a river’s journey toward the sea, toward the source of our being, toward God.

In this 400^th anniversary year of our mighty Hudson River, let’s return once more to the theme of the River of Life. In 1995 we began to plumb the depths of that metaphor.  We looked at the source of the river; the rapids, the eddies, the flow and found our own stories there.  Come, be part of the circle of women sharing our lives once more.

In her new book, Open the Door: A Journey to the True Self, Joyce Rupp explores the rich image of the door as an invitation to growth and awareness.  Discovering the many ways that doors are a potent symbol for spiritual growth, Rupp leads us to search more deeply for our authentic selves in fuller union with God.  Join us once more as we seek to Open the Door.

To sustain a level of inner freedom within themselves and a greater attentiveness to the experience of their directees, spiritual directors need to understand and expect that we are conditioned by cultural, personal and relational influences that affect the way we listen, process information, evaluate persons and attend to others’ religious experience.  We all carry within us sets of screens, matrixes, through which we automatically filter experience.  The more directors are consciously aware of these “filters” and biases, the more available they will be to their directees.