The seminar in ecospirituality will take place over the Palm Sunday weekend (March 22-24, 2024) at Haus Maria Rast in Euskirchen. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and at the same time the day anticipates what will be the focus of the following Holy Week, namely Jesus’ suffering and death. Jesus’ Way of the Cross is relevant this year in the flare-up of conflicts in the Middle East, in the war in Ukraine and, for a long time, in the urgency of climate change and our dealings with God’s good creation.
Ecospirituality assumes that the major crises of our days are related to how individuals and groups experience their present: There is an interrelationship between political and social events and the personal challenges of each individual. We would like to explore this in our workshop. We present the four steps of the deep ecological spiral: 1) anchoring ourselves in gratitude, 2) honoring the pain of the world, 3) seeing with new eyes and 4) going forward. In addition to the inspiring exercises of Joanna Macy, an eco-activist, systems theorist and founder of the WTR method (Work that reconnects), we deepen our own faith through meditative prayers and rituals and experience creation as a source for our engagement on this planet.
The workshop aims to strengthen people in their personal faith and support them in their commitment to peace, justice and the integrity of creation.
