In this episode, Gail, Catherine and MJ discuss what it means to be in community—with one’s spouse, children and others in community of faith. Married for 53 years, MJ recounts the deepening of her marriage relationship through Marriage Encounters and how ‘church’ happens in lots of ways other than institutional religion.  In particular, MJ describes how women Catholics are claiming visibility and voice. As an educator, “teaching is like breathing.” As a philosophy, “leisure is an attitude into the mind and a condition of the soul.”

"What we lose in the physical, we gain in the wisdom of the spirit." - MJ Dix Ed.D

Take-Aways:

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  Spirituality is a trip inside to learn how to become who you are

  
  
  
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  You are always enough

  
  
  
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  Keep your head up, keep going—just do it!

  
  
  
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  Do what it is you want to do, in the time you have left

  
  
  

Contact MJ Dix: mjdix@depaul.edu

Resources Recommended by MJ:

1. The Grace in Dying by Kathleen Dowling Singh.  (2000) The first half is about transpersonal psychology, taking on the journey from birth when we are strongly ourselves, through early life when the world does its best to convince us otherwise, to a re-embracing ("The Path of Return") of who we are created to be but have not yet fully become.  The second half is about the dying process and "The gift of suffering" and "The Experience of Grace".

2.  Adult Faith : Growing in Wisdom and Understanding by Diarmuid O'Murchu.  (2010) This book takes us from "Conventional Inherited Wisdom" by understanding our experiences of "Embedded Codependency, to "Adult Empowerment.  This is not a book about religion. Rather it is about our relationship with our beliefs.

3.  Dear Joan Chittister: Conversations with Women in the Church. (2019) This presents the experiences of eleven well-educated, talented  adult women of faith working in ministry in the Catholic Church...or trying to.  Joan responds to each offering considerable wisdom, encouragement, and grace as only she can.

Joan has many other books, all of which I recommend.  Particularly "The Time is Now" which offers wisdom about our current political situation and "The Gift of Years: Growing Old Gracefully".  When the body declines the mind and spirit have grown strong.

4.  The many offerings of Anthony DeMello in both book and You-tube forms.  Just search DeMello.

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