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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her),Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery Jennifer Shimota’s hope for the Contemplative Renewal Immersion experience was that the scaffolding of the extended immersions would create space for her brain to be quiet. In her experience, “A brain with strong ADHD is always scurrying even if the body is still.” The Immersions met this need. The rhythm of the monastery gave her the scaffolding she sought to explore practices like Centering Prayer and silence that are very difficult for her. She was moved by practices such as statio. “To say we …

Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery Jennie Ott, a pastor at Lake Oswego United Church of Christ in Oregon, can still remember the moment in 2018 when she read the invitation to join a cohort of pastors for contemplative renewal at a Benedictine Monastery in Wisconsin. “So much of my life then, and frankly still now, is attending to other people’s needs and particularly, my children, my spouse and my congregation. And so, I think I was just hopeful. What could I do that would just be …