For centuries, Christians have set out on a holy pilgrimage in 14 movements. From the Garden of Gethsemane to the Garden Tomb, we invite you to walk with Jesus, experiencing the sorrow, suffering, and passion of his self-sacrificial love. This meditation introduces a series of 14 audio meditations that follow 14 Stations of the Cross.We follow in his way, knowing that one offers no greater love than laying down their life for others. As we join Jesus, we are reminded that we are his beloved chil...
Mar 22, 2021•6 min
Meditation for Station 1: Passion. Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane* Music provided by Les Petits Chanteurs de Montigny: Cantata Domino GO Pitoni and Kai Engel: Take a Look Around You.*Art: Christ on the Mount of Olives by Paul Gaugin (in public domain)
Mar 22, 2021•10 min
Meditation for Station 2: Betrayal. Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested.*Music: Les Petits Chanteurs de Montigny: O Bone Jesus; Violin by Neil Leonard* Art by Michael O'Donnell
Mar 22, 2021•10 min
Meditation for Station 3: Condemnation. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin.*Music: Couperin's Prelude la Tromba, Air de Diable performed by Advent Chamber Orchestra; Perdue No. 1 performed by Barryvan*Art by Lynn Staggs
Mar 22, 2021•11 min
Meditation for Station of the Cross 4: Denial. Peter Denies Jesus.Music: Cappella Romana's Byzantine Chant: Prokeimenon; Kai Engel: Mist and CloudsArt by Michael O'Donnell
Mar 22, 2021•11 min
Meditation for Station of the Cross 6: Scourge. Jesus is scourged and wears a crown of thorns.*Music: Victim Paschali Laudes performed by Tudor Consort; Bach's Andante from Italian Concerto performed on harp by Catrin Finch.*Art by Michelle Morris
Mar 22, 2021•11 min
Meditation for Station 7: Burden. The King takes up his cross.*Music: Russian Liturgical Chant: The Cross Exalted Invites All Creation; Kai Engel: Cloudburst.*Art by Michael O'Donnell
Mar 22, 2021•10 min
Meditation for Station 8: Fall. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross.*Music: Russian Liturgical Chant: Turn Not Thy Face Away from Thy Servant; Kai Engel: Aspirato.*Art by Lynn Staggs
Mar 22, 2021•10 min
Meditation for Station 9: Lament. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.*Music: Kai Engel: Morbid Imaginations; Couperin's Air de Diablo performed by Advent Chamber Orchestra* Art: The Outcry of the Women by Adolfo Perez Esquivel (creative commons)
Mar 22, 2021•12 min
Meditation for Station 10: Wounds. Jesus is stripped and crucified.To view the "White Crucifixion" by Marc Chagall, please visit this link to the Art Institute of Chicago: www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59426The song Via Dolorosa provided with courtesy by Young Noah.
Mar 22, 2021•14 min
Meditation for Station 11: Thirst. Jesus thirsts.*Music: Byzantine Chant Kontakion Unshakeable Foundation by Cappella Romana; Kai Engel: Soli.*Art: As Seen from the Cross by James Tissot (Brooklyn Art Museum, public domain)
Mar 22, 2021•11 min
Meditation for Station 12: Grief. Jesus speaks to his mother from the cross.*Music: Cujus Animam Gementem performed by Tudor Consort; Evermore by Kai Engel.*Art by Michael O'Donnell
Mar 22, 2021•12 min
Meditation for Station 13: Death. Jesus dies and the veil of the Temple is torn.*Music: Agnus Dei performed Tudor Consort; Curtains are Always Drawn by Kai Engel.* Art by Michelle Morris
Mar 22, 2021•10 min
Meditation for Station 14: Tomb. Jesus is buried in the tomb.*Music: Vivaldi's Credo Crucifixius performed by Advent Chamber Orchestra; Denouement by Kai Engel.* Icon by Emmanuel Lambardos the Younger , 1640 (after the prototype in Crete)
Mar 22, 2021•11 min
Spiritual Director Kelsie Meyers offers this beautiful prayer of Examen for the year end. In the presence of God and through the eyes of Jesus, you are invited to look back, noticing the movements of God in your life and to look ahead, cultivating hope for what is yet to come.Music courtesy of Borrtex: Bright Morning Star (Creative Commons)Photo by Simon Matzinger from Pexels
Dec 27, 2020•17 min
These advent reflections and prayers accompany the Weary World Rejoices Advent guide which is posted on the www.betwixtpodcast.com and Flourish Contemplative Center website. You are welcome to download the guide and join us in this journey of illumination toward Christmas!During Advent, we light candles to remind ourselves to watch for the light. Each week, we illuminate a theme that will grow our expectancy for the Advent - the coming of Jesus.You are invited to return to this prayer of examen ...
Dec 14, 2020•7 min
“Let’s forget nation-state politics until we can engage practically the injustices going on in our towns and villages in which we live.”David Fitch is the B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary in Chicago. He is also the founding pastor of Life on the Vine Christian Community- a missional church in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. Many of you may know Fitch as a leading voice in conversations about culture and missiology. You can find more about him on his website recl...
Sep 25, 2020•42 min
“I’m reading books by Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Adele Calhoun, and I’m like, where is the information on African American spiritual direction? We need to have a voice in this community.”Dr. Barbara Peacock illustrates the liminal history of contemplative prayer, spiritual direction, and soul care within the African American tradition. Reflecting on significant men and women like Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Howard Thurman—Barbara celebrates the practices of s...
Jul 10, 2020•44 min
Dr. Nicole Roccas joins me to talk about the problem of time and eternity. She suggests three ancient cures for despondency that still work today.Nicole is a historian and adjunct faculty member at the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College in Toronto. She is the author of the books Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life, Under the Laurel Tree: Grieving Infertility with Saints Joachim and Anna, and A Journal of Thanksgiving: Record Three Years of Gratitude in a Sen...
May 29, 2020•54 min
My guest is Timothy Carson, curator of the Liminality Project. After retiring from full time pastoral ministry, Tim began to teach and write about liminality. He is the author of Liminal Reality and Transformational Power and editor of the anthology Neither Here nor There: The Many Voices of Liminality. And he’s working on a new collaborative book on practical theology and the development of a Biblical Hermeneutic of Liminality.Tim also ministers as a field guide, helping others transition throu...
Apr 30, 2020•50 min
Bonus Track to Episode 27 with Karen Swallow Prior. Listen to the Behind the scenes conversation with Mandy Smith about virtue, women and the women's luncheon at the Awakenings Gathering.
Jul 09, 2019•25 min
Today on the Betwixt Podcast, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior talks about her newest book On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature. Her book walks readers through twelves literary works that show us how to live virtuously. "Literature is like a boxing ring of ideas where we can try out and test ideas.” - We also discuss the virtue (or vice) of angry reading, Prior's combat boots and why virtue is so tricky for women.“The latin root word for virtue is the same root word for man. So...
Jul 09, 2019•49 min
“Christian life is not a life divided between times for action and times for contemplation. No. Real social action is a way of contemplation, and real contemplation is the core of social action.” Henri NouwenContinuing our series on Action & Contemplation, Phileena Heuertz talks about contemplation. How do contemplation and action work together? Why are practices of reflection and contemplative prayer essential to meaningful impact in the world?Phileena Heuertz spent 20 years working as an a...
Jun 18, 2019•47 min
Action or contemplation–which is better?This pitting of one against the other has been a long standing debate throughout history. Theologians have often used allegorical depictions of biblical women to illustrate this divide. Augustine famously used the two wives of Jacob to articulate his preference. He held up Leah as the model of the fruitful activist life. But Rachael was a model of the harder to attain contemplative life. Others set the Biblical sisters Mary against Martha: Mary, who sits a...
May 28, 2019•45 min
People often say, God is love. But when you think of God’s love, what does that mean to you?My guest is Michael Card, author of the new book Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God’s Lovingkindness. Card calls hesed the “greatest sacramental word in the Hebrew Bible.” It’s an untranslatable word that defines an inexpressible mystery. We have no English word to adequately describes hesed, yet it’s a word that God uses to describe himself. It’s an incredibly transformational word. Mike and I t...
May 14, 2019•55 min
“Intersex is a broad label for people with differences of sex development (DSDs)—people whose bodies show physical characteristics of both male and female.” - Intersex and FaithIn this latest Betwixt Podcast episode, Deb Gregory talks with Lianne Simon about her experience as a Christian intersex woman. Lianne shares her remarkable journey of faith despite experiences of abuse, shame and invisibility.Liane Simon was born with a genetic condition that caused sexual ambiguity. Because her body fea...
Apr 30, 2019•48 min
Artist Bruce Herman on Ordinary Saints: The Dangerous Space Between Icon and Portrait (The Art of Paradox Part 2) “Essentially poetry, art, music, break open the world again for us that had gotten closed by our false certainties.”In the last Betwixt Episode, Artist Bruce Herman told the story about the house-fire in which he lost 25 years of artwork. Bruce described it as a “eu-catastrophe” - the good catastrophe that brought freedom amidst great loss.In Part 2 of this robust conversation with B...
Apr 02, 2019•46 min
A great paradox of the Christian life is to stand at the edge of loss and to somehow gain freedom. In this episode, artist Bruce Herman shares his paradoxical story of embracing freedom amidst great loss. “A bunch of people have asked me over the years, what was it like to have your house hit by three bolts of lightning, burn down and destroy 25 years of your work as an artist? That must have been devastating!My honest answer is, ‘No, it really wasn’t. It was a eucatastrophe. It’s the good chaos...
Mar 19, 2019•23 min
In this Betwixt Podcast episode, we talk with Natasha Sistrunk Robinson about her journey to becoming a truth-teller in a divided world.The truth is, Natasha is a bridge-builder. She spans the distance between diverse communities, forging paths of deeper understanding, reconciliation and healing. “When you have influence, and all of us do, consider your space. How do you invite people into those spaces and opportunities because of the gospel?” - Natasha Sistrunk RobinsonNatasha was a star studen...
Mar 05, 2019•37 min
In this episode,Tish Harrison Warren shares her painful story of miscarriage. Because miscarriage was a wordless experience, she recognized her need for words from her community. She grasped on to liturgies of lament, wrapping time-tested words around her grief in the presence of community.How do we pastor those who have experienced loss through miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility or a regretted abortion? Listen as Tish casts a vision of grief care through liturgy.Tish Harrison Warren is an Ang...
Feb 19, 2019•55 min
