We are always called to more, which means we are called to change — our hearts, our habits, and sometimes even our vocations. But change is hard! For many, change can feel like a forced hand, because living the old way is simply too difficult. Every stage of life presents choices towards or away from greater growth—where are you now? Where do you want to be? What do you really really want?

My Journey

My own journey through mid-life has brought the realization that no amount of external success brings joy, and that our true purpose is to love God and to give back. Simple kindergarten Bible-school ideas, but it sure took me a while to realize that change is constant, change means work, and that security and stasis are not the goals. The journey is the goal, and great joy comes from the traveling companions one walks with along the way. While I still have a day-job teaching college, I also returned to school to study Christian Spirituality and become certified as a Spiritual Director through the wonderfully rigorous program at Loyola University, Chicago. I have a great love for the Christian mystical tradition, the opportunity for guided discernment that Spiritual Direction offers, and the loving and real relationship that God desires with each of God’s children. Which means everyone!

I believe that each of us is called to a unique and beautiful part in unfolding creation. As a SoulCollage® facilitator, I enjoy incorporating the arts into spiritual direction, and watching people honor their individual gifts, talents, and call. My own move has been from the classroom at the University to a more overtly heart-centered retreat and spiritual direction vocation, where individuals find joy in following their own unique paths. If you would like to explore and deepen your faith journey, I would love to listen.

I am happy to meet with you individually, or to plan a customized retreat for your church or organization. Recent retreats I’ve designed and facilitated include “Spiritual Writing and Reflection,” “Contemplative Living in Times of Change,” and “The Art and Spirituality of Gerard Manley Hopkins.” I have extensive training in accompanying individuals through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

As an individual, I love Imaginative Prayer, and most mornings I start my day with the wonderful meditations on “Pray as You Go.”

“Participation in the divine life means doing what the divine life does, and that is creating. Creating is an on-going activity, expanded from the present into the future, making things that are genuinely new... If the goal of our life is union with God, the archetypal Living One, and if the improvisation of continuous radical novelty is the characteristic of the Living one, then when we are united with God, we find our fulfillment by participating in this creative activity. And this fulfillment consists in continuing to create, world without end.”

— Beatrice Bruteau

Some of my favorite Things

Favorite book on contemplative prayer: AN OCEAN OF LIGHT by Martin Laird.
Currently reading: The WOLF HALL trilogy — because what’s religion if you can’t fight about it?? (kidding!)
Book that touched my heart: DEEP RIVER by Shusaku Endo — Anything by Endo is an invitation to engage with your faith life. He’s my favorite!

Favorite recently watched film: DRIVE MY CAR — I love the way healing is catalyzed by art in this astonishing movie.
Favorite poet of the moment: I’m returning to Milosz these days.
Favorite place to be: the Blue Ridge Mountains, anywhere there’s a silent retreat, or a beer garden in Germany.
Favorite way to waste an afternoon: baking something new, or taking a long walk and listening to nature.

If you’d like to schedule a session, plan a retreat, or just talk about where God might be showing up in your life, let’s explore! You can also find me at LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-umminger-mattison/