Upcoming Events

Do you have a deep personal interest in spiritual growth and want to learn how to accompany others on their journeys? Do you have a ministerial role that involves spiritual care and leadership? Enhance your pastoral care by joining a 4 module workshop series on spiritual accompaniment, grounded in the exploration of listening as a skill and an art – essential elements to accompanying another. 

Each module begins with a 2 hour introduction on a Friday evening (6:30pm to 8:30pm), followed by a 6 hour workshop Saturday (9:00am to 3:00pm). The modules are designed to build skills needed for effective accompaniment through a culture of encounter. Each session provides content, context, and opportunities to listen deeply to oneself and others.

• Listening to your life and accompanying others (June 26/27)
• Ways of listening (July 10/11)
• Praying with others (July 24/25)
• Spiritual accompaniment ministries (August 7/8)

About our Workshop Leader – Candee Lucas

“I am a Jesuit-trained-and-inspired spiritual companion to the sick, suffering, dying and their families, friends, caretakers, survivors and mourners. I have served as Chaplain for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and as Aftercare Coordinator for Catholic Cemeteries-Diocese of San Jose. I trained to be Spiritual Director at El Retiro in Los Altos.

I believe all paths lead to God and that all traditions are due respect and honor. I believe in creating a sacred space for those who are suffering; even in the most incongruous of surroundings. Suffering requires witness and accompaniment. Even in sorrow there is mystery, awe and wonder. Every new encounter with another is an opportunity for a rendezvous with the divine. I utilize art, poetry, music, aromatherapy, Lectio Divina, prayer and meditation in my self-work and work with others who accompany.”

The suggested donation is $100. If you'd like to donate,  click here to make an online donation.

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Registration is limited to twelve participants. Register here

Registration closes on Tuesday, June 23rd.

About our speaker - Haruka Umetsu Cho is an Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University. She received her B.A. from International Christian University, Tokyo and her M.A. in philosophy from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. In Japan, she focused on philosophy, especially St. Augustine’s theory of music. In 2012, she began an M.Div. at Yale Divinity School where her research considered Christianity and literature in East Asia. This turn led her to grapple with questions of cultural encounter, colonialism, and gender/sexuality as significant factors that shape human experiences of religion. She received her PhD in the program of Religion, Gender, and Culture at Harvard University. 

Interested in attending? Register here

Since the days of Mary Magdalene and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, women have stood at the center of the Christian tradition. Yet too often their voices have been ignored and forgotten—and even silenced outright. This series will explore the history of women witnesses throughout Christian history—saints and martyrs, sisters and activists, theologians and spiritual writers. Centering both Catholic and ecumenical voices and covering a range of topics and time periods, this series will lift up the voices of women throughout Christian history—all in the spirit of empowering women and men in their lives of faith, spirituality, and ministry today.

Led by outstanding scholars and practitioners from Santa Clara University, each session will offer unique opportunities for reflection and discussion, with a goal of deepening our shared lives of faith.

Dates, Speakers, and Topics:

November 15: Dr. Elyse Raby, “Lessons in Courage and Conscience: Teresa of Ávila, Catherine of Siena & Clare of Assisi”

December 13: Dr. Bridget Burke Ravizza, “Advent Reflections with Mary, Mother of Jesus, and St. Brigid of Ireland"

January 17: Dr. Paul Schutz, “Nevertheless They Spoke: Hildegard and Julian’s Visions of God” 

February 21: Ana Karen Barragan Fernandez, M.A., and Darcy Phillips, M.A., “Contemporary Catholic Women of Latin America: Rostros of Community, Faith, and Tradition”

March 21: Dr. Cathleen Chopra-McGowan, “Presence and Absence: Women in the Hebrew Bible”

April 18: Elise Dubravec, M.Div., “Prophetic Anger: Exploring the Book of Susanna”

May 16: Dr. Melissa Ursin, “Women Religious at the Margins: Inspired by Faith and Feminism”

June 20: Dr. Haruka Umetsu Cho, “Voices of Women Martyrs in Early Modern Japanese Christianity”

The hopes and push factors propelling migrant women, together with gender-specific threats they face, challenge simplistic slogans about immigration today. Their experiences and those who accompany them witness to the signs of the times, the value and limitations of Catholic social teaching principles for countering injustice and inhospitality, and ways forward marked by hope, resistance, and structural change.

About our speaker - Dr. Kristin Heyer holds the Joseph Chair in Theology at Boston College. She earned a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College. Prior to returning to BC as a faculty member, she taught at Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University. Her scholarship and teaching focus on topics such as moral agency, migration, social inequality, and modern Catholic social teaching.

Dr. Heyer authored the award-winning books Kinship Across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration and Prophetic and Public: The Social Witness of U.S. Catholicism , as well as dozens of articles and book chapters. She is co-editor of six books, including Christianity and the Law of Migration.

Professor Heyer is a recent past-president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the principal association of Catholic theologians in North America and the largest professional society of theologians in the world. Her work has global reach. She serves as a co-chair of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, an international network of scholars and practitioners in the field of theological ethics. She has lectured widely in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and India on topics such as immigration, the common good tradition, Catholic social movements, and feminist ethics.

Interested in attending? Register here.