By Gordon Creamer
“He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:37-40, NRSVUE)
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“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” (Dalai Lama)
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It is increasingly difficult to live from our hearts these days! This statement, while not considered late-breaking news, can be interpreted in current times on distinctlyunique levels. Yes, cardiac health is integral to living an active, engaged life and one that is prone to longevity. Yet, on a spiritual level, living from the heart-center of who we are mandates deeper reflection and, perhaps, even more perseverancethan what we might strive for in the physical realm. Embodying the best version of ourselves — that is to say, expressing our authentic self as flowing from our heart— signifies the intention with which God created each one of us. This is living deliberately out of love and with it in everything.
However, the question does then naturally arise – how do we even do this? How do we manifest the love of God in our conscious awareness and accompanying actions? We can turn to Jesus and his inspired teachings on love. If we contemplate this in the Scriptures with our hearts, it can speak to and affirm us in our realities ofboth joy and grief. Additionally, we can reflect upon ancient wisdom for meaningful understanding in these circumstances, such as recognizing ourselves as comprised of spirit, flesh, and energy. This dimension of energy can be challengingfor us as human beings to comprehend, and yet, its influence upon our mindsets, heartframes, and everyday living is undeniable.
Join us for a weekend retreat this August in which we will consider all of this with deep intention. In sacred community, we will journey with the person and Gospel message of Jesus in light of what has been understood through time and human experience as the ancient wisdom of the chakra system. Through prayer and meditation, reflective writing, group dialogue, and other contemplative, creative exercises, participants will spend time discerning how the words and example of Jesus converge with contemporary engagement with the heart chakra.
Additionally, this retreat will explore the transformative teachings of Jesus as participants are guided to ground themselves in the reality of striving to live in a more incarnational way, including how we can experience lament and enact compassion, how we can practice forgiveness in a time of relentless wounding, and how we can journey with grief tenderly among other manifestations of the heart. There will be ample time for personal and collective reflection in between presentations on Jesus’ wisdom, engaging with the heart chakra, and being nourished by Eastern spiritual practices.
Hope you will come along this journey of the heart and living more deeply in Love…
Join Gordon Creamer for Jesus and the Chakras: Exploring Ancient Wisdom, Living Incarnationally on August 15, 2025 at 4:00 pm through August 18, 2025 at 11:30 am.