Center for Prayer & Spirituality - Engaging the Contemplative Life
The Center's mission is to encourage and support an interest in Christian spirituality and integrate mind, body, and spirit by offering contemplative practices, classes, lectures, workshops and direction.
We hope to foster connection, understanding and compassion for self and others, and the mystery that beautifully and expansively holds us all.
Centering Prayer Circle
Thursdays, 9 -10 a.m.
Cummings Chapel
Reflection and silent prayer. Guided by participants.
Quiet Garden Mornings
Monthly - September, October, November
Held in Cummings Chapel, Meditation and Liturgy, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
These three offerings, see details below, will give us an opportunity to engage in a variety of contemplative practices. Life is a sacred adventure. Every day we encounter signs that point to the active presence of Spirit in the world around us. Spiritual literacy is the ability to trust the signs of our own experience; we will practice small spiritual exercises that help us discern the nearness of God in our world. Reading the wisdom of others and making soul connections will settle us in quiet reflection and deepen our focus. We will engage body, mind and spirit in our ordinary lives and emerge from this quiet time refreshed and replenished.
The Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera is a working artist and teacher, an avid gardener and person of prayer. She is a priest who emerged from the Ignatian exercises with a deep respect for holy imagination and creativity in the spiritual life. She is a member of the cathedral congregation and can be reached at [email protected] or 613-413-2259.
Quiet Garden Morning: Greening the Soul
Saturday, Oct 15, 2022, 9:00 AM
Quiet Garden Morning: Speak Your Truth
Saturday, Nov 12, 2022, 9:00 AM
Slowing Down in a Hurry Up World
Saturday, Dec 10, 2022, 9:00 AM
Additional Resources
The Bernie Dooly Lending Library is open during office hours (Monday-Thursday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.) on the first floor of Cathedral House, 256 E. Church Street.
Cathedral Bookstore and Gift Shop, 221 E. Church Street is an excellent resource for books on prayer and reflection, inspirational material, Prayer Books and Bibles. Books can be ordered and mailed/delivered directly to you. The Bookstore also hosts “First Monday Book Group”. Get the bi-weekly bookstore newsletter "The Herald" by signing up here, and choose Cathedral Bookstore.
Contact Bookstore Manager Kathryn Bissette at (904) 632-9104, extension 152, or email [email protected] to learn more.
Pause, News and Views from the Quiet Garden Movement www.quietgarden.org
Contemplative Outreach
www.contemplativeoutreach.org
For Inspiration and Reflection
Pilgrims' Journeys with Owene Philips Weber Courtney
Center for Prayer and Spirituality Archives
The Center for Prayer and Spirituality is led by the Rev. Eric Kahl.
The Rev. Eric Kahl
Director of the Center for Prayer and Spirituality
(904) 501-4130
Since his ordination as a priest at St. John’s Cathedral in 1985, Father Kahl’s entire ministry has taken place in the state of Florida and it has always been in the context of a church and school partnership. He has served as the long-time rector and school chaplain of parishes in Coral Gables and Tampa, an assistant rector and chaplain of parishes in Jacksonville Beach and Jacksonville.
His belief that parish and diocese are partners in a common mission has been expressed in his service as a member of the executive board of two dioceses.
Upon his retirement as an active priest, Father Kahl has returned to his home Diocese of Florida.
He is the Director of the Cathedral’s Center for Spirituality and Prayer.
Father Kahl serves as the Diocesan Chaplain to the Retired Clergy Community.
Father Kahl describes himself as a contemplative person and priest, believing strongly that the spiritual life is grounded in silence, solitude, and stillness. His faith is guided by the Anglican precepts that Christianity is Biblical, Creedal, Sacramental and Episcopal.
Father Kahl was born in Sendai, Japan, and grew up as an Army brat, the oldest of four children. He lived in thirteen different places in the first fourteen years of his life before the family settled in Tallahassee, where his sisters still live. His brother lives in Minnesota. He is a graduate of Leon High School, Florida State University, and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Father Kahl writes about himself: “I am the father of three adult children, Abigail, Madeleine, and Aidan. I am in the constant company of my partner, Margaret.
“I love to take long walks, anywhere, anytime but especially on the Florida beaches. I love to fish in cool waters, build large sandcastles, and have meaningful conversations long into the night. Reading is a favorite activity and I have been known to keep two or three books open at the same time. I am passionate about baseball at all levels but admit to a life-long loyalty to the New York Yankees.
“But most of all I love the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my heart’s deepest desire do all things necessary to help others come to a lasting and abiding relationship with Him who Is The Way, The Truth and The Life.
“I love serving the Lord Jesus as a priest of the Episcopal Church. I am blessed when I am able to disciple and enable persons with the goal that they may come to ‘know, love and serve the Lord’.
“I am guided in all things by a biblical principle written in St. Paul’s First Letter to Timothy: ‘The aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.’ "
The Center for Prayer & Spirituality Board:
Buck Pittman
Susan Woods
Corrine Connally
The Reverend Laura Magevney
