Wednesdays, May 7, 14, 21, 2025
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET
All registered participants will receive the video recording link to this program to watch at your convenience. 5 CEUs available by contacting: info@thesophiainstitute.org
Mirabai Starr
“…Grief is not a problem to be solved or a malady to be cured. It’s a sacred reality to be entered. For so many of us, there’s an opening to our soul’s innate birthright, of our longing for God that often gets covered over by everyday life. When we experience a profound loss, it strips us of those coverings … granting us special access to a profound loving intimacy with the divine.”
-Mirabai Starr
In Part I, we share interspiritual teachings from the mystics of various traditions that illuminate the connection between loss and spiritual longing. Many of us who have suffered deep loss experience a palpable sense of the sacred filling the atmosphere and flooding our hearts.
Sometimes we are afraid to speak of this gift for fear that we will seem as if we are not “sad.” But our beings are vast enough to hold brokenness and exaltation in the same shattered container. When we investigate this state with curiosity and compassion, we may find that the pain of loss is intimately entwined with our deepest yearning for connection to the Divine.
The teachings of the sixteenth century Spanish saints, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, show us how we may approach the radical mystery that often accompanies profound loss as a spiritual opportunity rather than as a problem requiring a solution. By engaging a contemplative in favor of a cathartic approach, we cultivate an environment of emotional safety and deep peace.
Our time together will include teachings, mystical poetry, questions and responses, chanting and more.
Meet Mirabai Starr
Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her latest book, WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, was named one of the “Best Books of 2019” by Spirituality & Practice. Mirabai is on the 2020 Watkins List of the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People of the World.” She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
Mirabai speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics and contemplative practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. She is available for interviews, speaking engagements, workshops and contemplative retreats. She lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with her husband, Jeff Little (Ganga Das). Between them, Mirabai and Jeff have four grown daughters and six grandchildren. Mirabai’s youngest daughter, Jenny, was killed in a car accident in 2001 at the age of fourteen. On that same day, Mirabai’s first book, a translation of Dark Night of the Soul, was released. She considers this experience, and the connection between profound loss and longing for God, the ground of her own spiritual life.
Jim Finley, Ph.D.
“We have to take a deep breath, and roll with the waves of the unfoldings of ourselves.”
-Jim Finley
In Part II, Jim Finley will help us explore the evolving phases of grief in which the initial intensity of feelings of sadness and loss too deep for words gradually softens into an acceptance of the loved one’s death. This softening process grants access to realizations that the love we shared has not died but lives on within us in subtle mysterious ways.
He will then go on to explore the ways in which our delicate interior realizations of the deathless nature of love can open out upon personal realizations of the transcendence of death that the saints and mystics of all the religions of the world bear witness, along with some poets and artists and all who have been quickened with intimate realizations of deathless nature of who we deep down really are and are called to be.
He will conclude with words of guidance and encouragement in fostering fidelity to daily prayer and meditation that can help to us to become ever more habitually established in peace of God that transcends the tyranny of of suffering in the midst of suffering, that transcends the tyranny of death in the midst of death.
Meet Jim Finley
When Jim Finley graduated from high school, he entered the cloistered Trappist monastery of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. During the nearly six years he lived there as a member of the community he was especially blessed in having Thomas Merton in his role as master of novices guide him in search for God. Since leaving the monastery Jim has written several books and has led weekend contemplative retreats in the United States and Canada. He is now retired as a clinical psychologist who focused on the treatment of trauma with men and women who wanted their spirituality to be a resource in their therapy. He is a core teacher in the Living School founded by Father Richard Rohr and he leads a weekly podcast “Turning to the Mystics” with Kirsten Oates.
Joan Borysenko
The deeper the sorrow, the greater the joy.” – William Blake
Life offers us both immeasurable joy and inevitable sorrow. In Part III, we’ll explore how to create the inner spaciousness needed to welcome it all—grief, regret, love, wonder, and the deep ache of witnessing a world in turmoil.
Through storytelling, reflection, simple grounding practices, and gentle focusing tools, we’ll explore how to remain centered amid life’s storms. This is an invitation to honor our losses without losing ourselves—and to cultivate the resilience, grace, and compassion to meet whatever arises with presence.
Meet Joan Borysenko
Dr. Joan Borysenko is a pioneering expert in integrative medicine and the mind-body connection, whose work has helped revolutionize healthcare by recognizing the role of meaning and spirituality in healing. A Harvard-trained scientist and psychologist, she co-founded a groundbreaking Mind/Body clinic and became a leading voice in behavioral medicine. Her bestselling book Minding the Body, Mending the Mind has transformed countless lives, and she has authored or co-authored 16 other books, along with numerous media programs. Known for her warmth, humor, and ability to bridge science and spirituality, Dr. Borysenko is a sought-after speaker who inspires audiences worldwide with her research-backed insights on health, healing, and personal transformation.