Our Walk Together

 Roger Sessions is one of the founders, developers, Directors, and current President of meditationchapel.org, a nonprofit corporation offering online chapels to meditation groups from around the world to meet  virtually and share the gift of silence and stillness. Today there are more than 150 groups meeting on the platform, and more than 8,000 registered users. Perhaps this speaks to you. There is no cost, and it is a truly loving community. 

Roger is a graduate of the FinD program, a three year training program for Spiritual Directors run by the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and I am commissioned by the Episcopal Church as a Spiritual Director. Until moving to Guatemala in 2017, I was on staff at the Austin Presbyterian Seminary as a Spiritual Director. I have been deeply involved in Prison Ministry.

Meditation Chapel

Meditation Chapel invites meditation groups from every faith tradition to use our online chapels. They invite meditators from all faith traditions to participate in any of the groups. Welcome to the Online Meditation Chapel and our online multi-faith community of contemplatives. If you are called to find the sacred in the stillness,  we are here for you.

This is a free site and they do not accept any advertisements. It is a gift of love to each other. l

Meditation Chapel nurtures unity and peace through the sharing of divine stillness and sacred listening. They support groups of all faith traditions in offering and sharing the contemplative experience through the sacramental use of technolog

The desire is to offer you a virtual chapel where you can experience the beauty and community of online meditation groups.
 

Welcome to the Online Meditation Chapel and our online multi-faith community of contemplatives. If you are called to find the sacred in the stillness,  we are here for you.

The title of this episode gives most of the information about its content.  Don shares with the listeners his life.  He starts with recounting a childhood of abuse, his encounters with the legal system, his incarceration for many years, and how he found God while in prison and afterward.

Don found his way to the Secular Franciscan order, where he is a professed member.  He has served in several different ministries and continues to be of service to the Church.

Don is the author of "From Felon to Secular Franciscan".  He writes under the pen name of Don J. Bessette in order to protect his family.

 Amos has spent much of his life studying and practicing Contemplatice and Centering Prayer.

In his own words:

"In my late teens and twenties I was a backpacker and mountain climber. Often times on mountain vistas I had an unmistakable intense feeling that I was part of something sacred and mysterious that was much larger than myself. This led me to explore meditation and Quaker Silent Meetings for Worship. 
In 1999 I met the founder of Contemplative Outreach, Thomas Keating. Keating told me, " If you practice Centering Prayer for at least forty minutes a day and if you do extended retreats you will make progress."                                                                                        Throughout my life I gravitated toward athletics and was a competitive wrestler. So, in 1999 I applied my athletic discipline to Centering Prayer, rarely missing the forty minutes a day or the extended yearly retreats.
Through Centering Prayer the tensions I held in my body dissipated and my entire nervous system gradually healed (a tall order for Westerners amped up on caffeine and a go-go-go lifestyle). 
The healing effects of Centering Prayer are the saving grace of my life. So, now I feel compelled to share it with others."

This is an episode that could change your life.

Darryl says: My oldest of two boys, Chase, attended college on a football scholarship.  He dropped out in the second semester of his freshman year after developing a drug addiction.  When I first learned of Chase's drug habit, I didn't know anything about substance use disorders, and I panicked.  I made a lot of parenting mistakes. 
Through an intervention, we were able to get Chase into treatment, but I didn't realize the proper role of the family in the recovery process.  In some ways I was enabling Chase and doing things that may have contributed to his eventual relapse. 

I worried about Chase constantly, but it seemed as though my efforts to help him only made matters worse.

Chase returned home from treatment and was doing well with his recovery at first, but months later, he relapsed and in 2014 at the age of 20, Chase died in a drug-impaired wreck.  Chase was a passenger in the front seat of his own car.  The 18-year-old driver took her own life 7 months later.  

After Chase died, I immersed myself in learning everything I could about substance use disorders. (drug & alcohol addiction).

IN this episode he shares what he has learned.

Michael has known depression inside and out since childhood, including two hospital stays and multiple suicide attempts. And yet He has a strong faith in God, and has been living out that faith as a parish pastor for the past fifteen years. In his book "Darkwater" (Boyle & Dalton Press, 2022), He tells his life story from the perspective of both depression and faith. He describe it as two voices that he hears constantly -- the "Dark Voice" of depression that tells him that he is worthless and horrible, and the still, small voice of God who whispers to him that he is beloved and worthy. He has a unique perspective to offer as someone with a strong (Lutheran) faith, a deep and thoughtful experience of depression, AND the willingness and desire to be open about both. He believes that he can offer hope to people who live with mental illness, hope that it's okay to struggle with this, that it's not a moral or spiritual failing. And also hope that there is abundant life available no matter what.

"I'd be happy to share the dark times I went through striving to help others and feeling like I was alone on my journey even though God must have been close by. "

These words in an email from Rob Cook caught my attention.   In this episode he explaind what this means to him and what REAL success liooks like.

Rob is a CPA, CFP, Level CFA, and former financial advisor who left his job as an advisor to join a start-up trying to bring the next generation of financial planning software to market. 
After becoming a financial advisor, Rob quickly realized that the current model of financial advice was ripe for innovation. When he was approached by his company, he jumped at the chance to help millions of people gain access to real, high quality, truly valuable financial advice, and now proves it's possible by using the tool himself to bring world-class financial expertise to anyone for a fraction of the cost through his business and podcast, Contenders Wanted.

Rob is on a mission to help families solve their money problems without sacrificing what’s most important in life.

Stephen Snook talks about how he was lead by Jesus to change his life while in jail

This is myt special Thanksgiving reminder as well as thanks to my listeners.

I hope to give some additional information and insight into the Secular Franciscans.  I talk about their origins, the Rule, and how they function in the world today.

If you would like more information, you can call the central phone number here in the USA: 1-800-Francis 1-800-372-6247.

Holy Family Farm will be set in a beautiful rural location, separated from the distractions of popular culture.  Holy Family Farm is not for a young man’s rehabilitation, but rather, his recognition – his recognition of the true meaning of life, of manhood, of sacrifice, and of his God-given mission in and for the world. 

We will employ regenerative agricultural practices to raise organic livestock and produce, and will also manufacture handmade craft goods.  These enterprises will support the material needs of the program.  Indeed, in the words of the Friars, “We are not trying to run a farm, but trying to run a formation program using a farm”. 

We hope that Holy Family Farm will become a beacon, both for young men in formation, as well as for families and friends that share our vision.  We envision a place where the faithful can visit and enjoy Christian fellowship and family-building activities.

Companions on the Journey © 1985, Carey Landry and OCP. All rights reserved. Used

with permission. (P) © 1985, OCP. All rights reserved. Used with permission.