In May the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help welcome Belden Lane, Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies at St Louis University. Lane is a storyteller and lover of wilderness backpacking. His books include The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice, and The Great Conversation: Nature and the Care of the Soul.
On May 11 at 7pm CST via Zoom, Lane will give a talk entitled “Listening to The Trees: Renewing Thomas Berry’s Great Conversation.” For more than twenty-five years Belden Lane has had a practice of praying with a 100-year-old cottonwood tree in the park across the street from his house. He calls him Grandfather. Their relationship has been an important way of binding him more closely to the natural world and to God as well. Fr. Thomas Berry lamented that we as humans have fallen away from any deep connection with the rest of creation. ‘We are talking to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and the stars. We have broken the great conversation.’ This spiritual poverty allows us to disregard (and misuse) a world that’s been given us to love.”
Q&A and discussion will follow. Sign up today, you will receive an email to confirm your registration and an email containing the link for the event. You should also receive an reminder email 24 hours prior and 1 hour prior to the start of the event. Please register at www.fsolph.org/events/ with the email address that you plan to use when viewing the event via the internet on a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. We recommend that you log in at least 15 minutes prior to the talk to ensure that your connection works properly.