You can only give what you have received
The Spiritual Directors behind my Candid record
Hi everyone,
Today I did a video as an experiment with Substack’s new capabilities. Let me know what you think!
My album Candid has come about in part because of my diving into spiritual direction and spiritual retreats. Spiritual direction is where trained professionals accompany you in your walk with Jesus. It’s almost like spiritual therapy. I’ve gone on and off for years to spiritual directors and am so thankful for them. Today I specifically want to thank Hallie Cowan, Ruth Haley Barton, and Neal Siler for their walking with me, helping me see the fullness of my life in Jesus and the risks that I can take as a result. I can’t give from what I don’t have, so I’m thankful to have those folk and others pour into me as I pour into others.
Do you have time to be silent for extended periods of time? Would you even want that kind of time with yourself and with God?
We Protestants and we Americans and we musicians love sound and noise. Noise noise noise. It’s ironic, therefore, that much of my discernment in music has come from periods of extended quiet, either in the presence of the directors or just on my own. I take quarterly silent retreats at monasteries that I just can’t recommend highly enough.
One of the best places to hear more of my candid story is at active monasteries. There’s this one up the street from my crib here in Chicago and man, watching the monks file in for evening prayer is such a gift. In the midst of the frenetic pace of modernity, these cats hold to millennium-old traditions of silence and fraternity. I always leave such times feeling deeply renewed. Notes of Rest couldn’t exist without such quiet.
Let me know if you ever want to talk more about those experiences. I’d be happy to do so!
abundantly,
Julian
What’s Next
Dec 7 Isaiah Collier’s Mercurian Project at Elastic Arts (Chicago)
Dec 11 Circle of Trust Private Recording Session (I solicit your prayers!)
Dec 16 Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few at Dorian’s (Chicago)
Dec 31 Notes of Rest at Evanston Vineyard (Chicago)
Jan 5 Marques Carroll Quintet at Andy’s Jazz Club
Jan 13-16 New York Winter Jazz Fest with Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few
Jan 18 Notes of Rest at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School
Interesting. However not all of us with spiritual lives walk with Jesus. I suppose you don’t mean to include us, in which case I shouldn’t follow you?