“May the light of your soul mind you,
May all of your worry and anxiousness
about becoming old be transfigured.
May you be given a wisdom with the eye of your soul, to see this beautiful time of harvesting.
May you have the commitment to harvest your life, to heal what has hurt you, to allow it to come closer to you and become one with you.
May you have great dignity,
may you have a sense of how free you are, and above all may you be given the wonderful gift of meeting the eternal light and beauty that is within you.
May you be blessed, and may you find a wonderful love in yourself for yourself.”

— John O’Donohue

Program Overview

• YEAR 1 GATHERING #1: (January 10 - 15, 2027) - Entering the Forest

  In this part of the journey, you will enter into the Forest, setting your intention and exploring what you need to pack for this journey, and equally important, what you will need to unpack – old ideas, spiritual understandings, beliefs, and wounds. It’s a time for exploring new ways of being, of serving, of discipleship. It’s a time to explore and expand our ways of seeing the world. It’s a time for experiencing new contemplative practices. We begin to explore questions such as: What is your relationship with your aging body, your place as an elder in community, your maturing relationship with God, and how will this be lived out in the ripening elder years? It is coming face-to-face with the biological, psychological, emotional and spiritual changes which are pushing us away from the familiar territory of our younger life into the Unknown, and seeing these as rites of initiation into another way of life rather than as signs of the end. Talks, elder circles, praxis, and a general orientation to the ways of the Forest will help each participant to enter into this sacred journey of conscious aging. Gathering will be available in-person at OST, or via Zoom. All talks will be recorded.

  Past talks include:

  • Situating the Season of Forest Dwelling – Spirituality and the Seasons of our Lives

  • Elder Circle Guidelines and Gifts

  • Beyond the Bucket List

  • The Approach to the Forest

  • The Four Spiritual Stages of Mature Adulthood

  • An Anthropology of Aging – the Intent of God and Nature

  • Creating a Living Spiritual Will

  • Rooted and Grounded in Love

  • Walk Slowly, Bow Often

  • Mindfulness Practice and the Sacrament of the Present Moment

  • Images of God: Rescuing God from Narrowness, Tribalism, Sexism, Nationalism, Legalism and other Images Unworthy of God

  SESSION #1: (February – May 2027)

  In session 1 (February – May 2027), you will continue your journey into the Forest with live Zoom talks or recordings from our core faculty or invited speakers. The sessions are generally every other week, 1 – 1.5 hours long. All live sessions will be recorded for those who are not able to attend.

  You will also have a monthly elder circle (approximately 1.5 – 2 hours long) – these will not be recorded due to the confidential nature of the sharings.

  Forest Dwellers will also have the opportunity to attend a monthly discussion group which will be recorded.

• YEAR 1 GATHERING #2: (June 7 – 11, 2027) - Wandering in the Forest

  In this part of the journey, we wander into new territory, encountering what no longer works, confronting fears, noticing the emotions that come when we are no longer valued in the ways we once were. It’s a time of letting go, of squarely facing all that we have lost. We experience grieving in a way that allows us to fully enter into the pain of life, while allowing it to transform us. We are finding new spiritual practices, a new rhythm, a new Sabbath in keeping with our changing lives. We are learning “to rest in God instead of restlessly seeking God.” (Augustine, Ron Rolheiser.) This is a time of Holy Wandering, leading to new experiences of Divine Presence within and all around us. “It is this unsettling that encourages us to practice in solidarity with the Earth beneath our feet: life right here, right now” (Rev Mary Earle). Liturgy, talks, elder circles, and praxis will be a shared communal experience. Virtual attendance only. Recordings will be available.

  Talks may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • A Spirituality of Aging – Towards a New Generativity

  • Creative Releasing: Letting Go of Resentment

  • Images of Age

  • Creative Releasing: Letting Go of Regret

  • Struggling with the Darkness of Faith

  • Returning to the Source – A Christian/Taoist perspective on the Stages of Spiritual Development

  • Aging and Loss: Weaving a New Shelter

  • Why Read a Poem at a Time Like This?

  • Creative Releasing: Letting Go of Resistance

  • Going Over that River Hard to See: Befriending Our Griefs and Our Deaths

  • Sexuality & Inconsummation – Some Maverick Reflections

  SESSION #2: (July – Nov 2027)

  Session 2 (July – Nov 2027) will allow you to continue exploration of mature spirituality through poetry and art, scripture, and other spiritual and secular writings. This will encourage you to open to the ways of being an elder spiritual seeker, as new images of aging and God shape your prayer, reflection and creative work in this season of life. There will live Zoom talks or recordings from our core faculty or invited speakers. Sessions are generally every other week, 1 – 1.5 hours long. All live sessions will be recorded for those who are not able to attend.

  You will also have a monthly elder circle (approximately 1.5 – 2 hours long; not recorded) and the opportunity to attend a monthly discussion group (recorded).

• YEAR 2 GATHERING #3: (January 9 - 14, 2028) - Discovering in the Forest

  Midway through the journey this gathering will be a water stop to reflect on where we have been together, and where we are headed in the next year. In this part of the journey, we begin to make discoveries amidst the realities of aging. We face our mortality as a way to transform the way we are currently living. Being fully present to the burdens and blessings of the aging process invites us into acceptance of the final season of our lives. We encounter a shift from activities of achievement and being self-important, to one of fruitfulness, passivity and facing our deaths, often within spiritual darkness. The aging process is bringing us into the deeper realm of the spiritual (Kathleen Dowling Singh), and Mystery unfolds in us as individuals and as a community of dwellers. How will we “be” in the challenges we face? “How much kinder we would be to ourselves, how much wiser, if we were to have already transformed loneliness into aloneness, far before the time of our death.” (Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Aging). How will we be transformed as we discover freedom from old habits and die to old ways of doing and being? We open to discover the joy of liberation from the demand for perfection, and to savor unexpected release as our attitude of attachment softens into loving detachment. This is a time characterized by living, dying and living anew. This gathering will also include opening and closing liturgy, talks, elder circles, and praxis. Gathering will be available in-person at OST, or via Zoom. All talks will be recorded.

  Talks may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Passivity as Fruitfulness and a Gift to Others – Giving our “Deaths” Away

  • Entering the Coracle: Being Carried by Currents of Divine Love

  • How the Arts Prepare Us to Face Death

  • Exploring Unhealed Wounds with a Compassionate Heart as We Age

  • After Death Stories: Faith, Fiction, or Medical Mystery?

  • Transformation – the Paradigm of the Paschal Mystery

  • Arriving at the Place of Resurrection: Going to Home We Have Never Left

  • The Autumn of our Lives – Its Innate Invitations and Imperatives

  SESSION #3: (February – May 2028) 

  In session 3 (February – May 2028), you will continue your exploration of thought-provoking material to help you move into a new relationship with diminishment, death, dying, while discovering new freedom and joy as you do so. This session includes live Zoom talks or recordings from core faculty or invited speakers. The sessions are generally every other week, 1 – 1.5 hours long. All live sessions will be recorded for those who are not able to attend.

  You will also have a monthly elder circle (approximately 1.5 – 2 hours long; not recorded) and the opportunity to attend a monthly discussion group (recorded).

• YEAR 2 GATHERING #4: (June 5 – 9, 2028) - Emerging From the Forest

  In this last part of our time together in community, we prepare for the journey out of the forest as elders, as “holy old fools” (Richard Rohr). Learning to live in a new, mystical understanding of the Body of Christ, living with mature paradigms of Resurrection and the afterlife, finding the peace of living in shared humanity. As I harvest the fruits of this Forest Dwelling journey, what will I have to give away? How will I share this growing freedom that comes with the unpacking of old wounds, the flowing of love and compassion for all, including myself? Who am I as I leave the forest shelter? How will I live in the Light of a new wisdom, informed and willing to surrender fully to life as it is? I am ready to live life as a wise elder, not just a person who is aging. Liturgy, talks, elder circles, and praxis will be a shared communal experience. Virtual attendance only. Recordings will be available.

  Talks may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Blessing Others – Our Last Greatest Gift

  • Wisdom from St. David of Wales: ‘Remember the Little Things’

  • What’s Happening – Unfolding, Emerging, Erupting, Awakening

  • Emerging into Love: Be Thou My Vision

  • A Mystic’s Guide to Transformation

  • Elder Wisdom for Fractured Times

  • Beloved Community – The Search for Beloved Community in Our Midst

  • Prayer Language: New Words for New Seasons of Prayer

  • The Last Word is Legacy

  • Out of the Depths – Witnessing Dementia

  • Late Generativity as helping “Carry” the Tensions within the Community – to “Ponder” in the Biblical Sense

  SESSION #4: (August – October 2028) A Time for Harvesting

  In these weeks, (August – October 2028), we prepare for the journey out of the Forest as elders. This session will primarily focus on harvesting the fruits of the Forest Dwelling Program in some creative way – with a painting, a poem, a written obituary, living will, and/or liturgy for their funeral, to name a few examples. There are no parameters for expression, reflecting the freedom of this program and stage of life. Some may decide that the inner harvesting, the joy of having shared their transformation with family, friends or community, is enough.

  FINAL GATHERING AND COMMENCEMENT: (November 6 – 8, 2028) 

  We meet for 3 days via Zoom, with final talks from core faculty, and one last elder circle. It is a meaningful way to complete the formal part of the program - both an ending and a beginning. Having formed deep bonds, many continue to meet with their circles long past the completion of the program. It’s safe to say that over time everyone will harvest seeds from their time in the Forest. We hear from many alumni how essential this program has been as they age.

  We have a virtual, formal Commencement on the third day, and family and friends are invited to celebrate with us.