Journey:
Together
We are pleased to invite you into this Journey of Illumination (JOI), a process for continued spiritual growth and transformation of men.
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.
MENTORING
We do not walk this journey alone!
Your mentor is not your Spiritual Director or counselor but rather a man who can encourage and challenge you based on what you share is happening in relationship to the different elements of the JOI. Check-ins can occur in person or by phone as your mentor might be located in another geographic area.
FORMS OF PRESENCE
The 5 key elements of the JOI can be considered ‘forms of practice.’ These are guidelines to help encourage and create intentional areas of inner growth and work.
FORMS OF PRACTICE
Ways to implement the Forms of Presence
Centering Prayer/Meditation, Fasting
Mindful Breathing/Practicing Presence, Walking Meditation, Wandering Retreats, Yoga/Body Work,
Engage in some form of service that supports family, community, and/or your men’s work. A Mentor, Elder, Soul Brother, small group and/or spiritual director can help discern a starting point if needed.
What Does The Journey of Illumination Invite You Into?
Check out some of our latest news, blogs and poetry below!
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The Enchanted Mirror
A poem by Michael Whitman (Written at Soularize 2017 and the “Do I Matter” retreat 2017) The man: “Who are you?” The boy: “I am the boy.” The man: “Why are you here? The boy: “To tell you a story.” The man: “I am listening.” I walked along a path In bright sun light […]
If this is what the center is like, what’s it like on the edges
At the end of 2005 my spiritual director said to me, ”I want you to consider going to see Fr. Richard Rohr when he speaks at Holy Family in Inverness.” Now I had heard of Fr. Rohr and I think I may even have read something of him, but I really couldn’t remember what it […]
MROP Homework
For some the quest to find themselves and what they are called to do, or at least find what honestly feels right, can take most of their life. A least that’s how it has felt for me. Each event in my life has slowly revealed something that continually moves me down the path to a […]
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, June 20 – July 1, 2016
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, June 20 – July 1, 2016 For Initiated men and their significant others. Click here to download Brochure and Registration Form PDF Several brothers of our Illinois M.A.L..E.s have gone to the Holy Land on pilgrimage and found it to be very significant in their spiritual journey. They got excited […]
17Feb
The Enchanted Mirror
A poem by Michael Whitman (Written at Soularize 2017 and the “Do I Matter” retreat 2017) The man: “Who are…
Read More16Jan
If this is what the center is like, what’s it like on the edges
At the end of 2005 my spiritual director said to me, ”I want you to consider going to see Fr.…
Read More16Jan
MROP Homework
For some the quest to find themselves and what they are called to do, or at least find what honestly…
Read More30May
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, June 20 – July 1, 2016
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, June 20 – July 1, 2016 For Initiated men and their significant others. Click here…
Read More30May
Find out what happened at the Illuman Leadership Meeting
April 6th - 10th, Bob Colaresi and I traveled to Oracle, AZ for the annual Illuman (Formerly MALEs) Leadership Meeting. …
Read More21May
Befriending the Darkness and the Light
Written by Bill McElroy Befriending the Darkness and the Light Salvation As the arch of the sun’s daily trek across…
Read More20Apr
Notes on the Journey…
When I was first introduced to Richard Rohr’s writings several years ago, it was like a whole new world opened…
Read More20Apr
Facing Our Fear
Thirteen years ago, our seven-week-old Siamese kitten dealt with fear the first time she met our 80-pound yellow Labrador retriever.…
Read More20Apr
IN-MI Elder Profile: David Wenger
One day in middle school we were given an assignment to design our own tombstone. This assignment had a lasting…
Read More20Apr
Soularize 2015 Report
I was blessed to be able to travel to New Mexico in November with 180 other men, fellow travelers on…
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.
