Initiatives
Purpose: To invite individuals into small group experiences in which they engage in contemplative dialogue.
Goal: To increase each individual's awareness that life is a spiritual journey and contemplative living is a way of responding to our everyday experiences.
The Bridges to Contemplative Living series leads participants on the journey toward a more contemplative approach to life. Each booklet has eight sessions for small group dialogue according to a specific format.
The Contemplative Leadership Initiative
Purpose: To address the leadership crisis found throughout the guiding institutions of society.
Goal: To influence the direction of leadership in all its manifestations, by integrating the concept and principles of contemplative leadership into mainstream leadership thinking, development and practice.
Contemplative leadership is an approach to leadership founded on living in right relationships with self, others, nature and God. These relationships are the source and focus of a leader’s awareness, influence and vision. They guide a leader’s ethical behavior, create trust, and provide the deeper meaning and purpose necessary for achieving a group or organization’s mission. Contemplative leadership seeks to realize human potential and improve the human condition.
Thomas Merton and other writers from the monastic contemplative tradition have valuable insights for contemplative leadership. Contemplative leadership begins with “self-leadership,” a focus on who the leader is as a foundation for what the leader does.
We are interested in collaborating with other organizations that share an interest in leadership development, especially for young adults.
The Contemplative Family Initiative
The Merton Institute has begun work on its Contemplative Family initiative to address the stress on relationships that families experience in a culture that values materialistic goals and excessive activity over dialogue and other ways to deepen the inner life of each member and the family as a community. We are in the research and information gathering phase of the project.