Journey
Together
We are pleased to invite you into this Journey of Illumination (JOI), a process for continued spiritual growth and transformation of men. Below are our five touchstones.
CENTERING
Show Up and Observe
Each day challenge yourself to make contact with your true Source.
GATHERING
Show Up and Get Together
Regularly look for support and accountability with other serious brothers.
CONNECTING
Show Up and Share
Challenge yourself to find spiritual disciplines that keep your mind and heart open and connected, your body centered, and your emotions grounded.
RELEASING
Show Up and Let Go
Living in the present moment requires us to release the past. Solitude and silence are traditional ways of allowing this to happen.
SERVING
Show Up and Act
Find some way to give it away. To have it for yourself is to lose it. The 12-Steppers call it the 12th and necessary step.
What Does The Journey of Illumination Invite You Into?
Check out some of our latest news, blogs and poetry below!
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- Drumbeat
- Fatherhood
- Illuman
- MROP
- Oracle 2022
- Parenting
- Poetry
Remembering Your Rites of Passage
I just finished my own Rites of Passage. It seems strange to write this, since I’ve already been working as the Illuman Administrator since last November. For months, I’ve gotten the bird’s-eye view of this organization, but it wasn’t until recently, at the (first-ever!) New Jersey MROP, that I got to experience first-hand the unique […]
Reflections from a Father for Gen Alpha
by Sergio Lopez Last October, just a few weeks before my thirty-fifth birthday, my wife surprised me with the incredible news that, after twelve years of marriage, we will finally have the opportunity to experience one of the ultimate joys in life—becoming parents for the first time. Like many couples in our generation, we’ve had […]
A Ukraine Refugee Fundraiser Update
Back in March, we offered you an opportunity to support Illuman brothers in the Czech Republic who are caring for refugees from the war in Ukraine. For the past several months these brothers have provided food, housing, medical and mental health care, and other forms of assistance for almost fifty Ukrainians, mostly women and children, […]
Fire
The following was offered by Illuman NorCal Convener Joe Gabaeff at Oracle 2022, our leaders gathering held in Potosi, Missouri. Fire by Judy Brown What makes a fire burn Is the space between the logs, A breathing space. Too much of a good thing, Too many logs Packed in too tight Can douse the flames […]
22May
Remembering Your Rites of Passage
I just finished my own Rites of Passage. It seems strange to write this, since I’ve already been working as…
Read More21May
Reflections from a Father for Gen Alpha
by Sergio Lopez Last October, just a few weeks before my thirty-fifth birthday, my wife surprised me with the incredible…
Read More20May
A Ukraine Refugee Fundraiser Update
Back in March, we offered you an opportunity to support Illuman brothers in the Czech Republic who are caring for…
Read More19Apr
19Apr
The Work that Reconnects: An Oracle 2022 Update
A few weeks ago, just over thirty Illuman leaders gathered at Trout Lodge in the foothills of the Ozarks for…
Read More18Apr
Prophet in Alaska
Each evening at Oracle 2022, our leaders gathering held in Potosi, Missouri, we gathered around “Grandfather Fire” to offer gifts…
Read More18Apr
Water Poured
Each evening at Oracle 2022, our leaders gathering held in Potosi, Missouri, we gathered around “Grandfather Fire” to offer gifts…
Read More18Apr
The Hudsons and the Scotts
Each evening at Oracle 2022, our leaders gathering held in Potosi, Missouri, we gathered around “Grandfather Fire” to offer gifts…
Read More17Apr
I am made of Stardust
Each evening at Oracle 2022, our leaders gathering held in Potosi, Missouri, we gathered around “Grandfather Fire” to offer gifts…
Read MoreSPIRITUAL REFLECTION
Suggested Reading List
Bill Plotkin - Soulcraft
Richard Rohr - Adam’s Return
Henri Nouwen - The Return of the Prodigal Son
James Finley - Merton’s Palace of Nowhere
Richard Rohr - From Wild Man to Wise Man
Since 1980, depth psychologist Bill Plotkin has been guiding women and men into the wilderness—the redrock canyons and snow-crested mountains of the American West—but also into the wilds of the soul. He calls this work soulcraft.
Based on decades of work, travel, and experience, Rohr, a Franciscan brother and best-selling author, unearths the complexities of male spiritual maturation and helps us to understand the importance of male initiation rights in both culture and the church.
A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son catapulted Henri Nouwen on a long spiritual adventure. Here he shares the deeply personal and resonant meditation that led him to discover the place within where God has chosen to dwell.
This one door is the door of the Palace of Nowhere. It is the door of God. It is our very self, our true self called by God to perfect union with himself. And it is through this door we secretly enter in responding to the saving call to ‘Come with me to the Palace of Nowhere where all the many things are one.
Wild Man to Wise Man is a revised and updated edition of Richard Rohr’s earlier best-seller, The Wild Man’s Journey: Reflections on Male Spirituality. For this new work, Rohr added three chapters that discuss John the Baptist, Saint Paul and grief. An appendix provides a structure for a men’s group, based on Rohr’s work with M.A.L.Es (Men As Learners and Elders), a program of the Center for Action and Contemplation, which Richard Rohr founded and now directs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
