Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her),
Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications
Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery
Emily Tveite is a Lutheran campus pastor from the Madison area, who now works to support Lutheran campus ministries across the country. When applying for Contemplative Renewal Immersions, Emily was hoping to learn some skills for day-to-day life to help her “wake up spiritually.” Reflecting, she says, “I imagined that it was going to be really directive and skill based. And I was pleasantly surprised that it was something different.”
In 2022, Emily joined the third cohort of Contemplative Renewal Immersions. At the time she was coming out of COVID, serving students through the Lutheran Campus Ministry at UW-Madison and caring for her 2- and 5-year-old children at home. She was exhausted. “I came in thinking I am going to learn these skills, but what I actually did was just experience what it is like to live a day-to-day rhythm that is reasonable for a contemplative, spiritually awake life…. The experience of moving into that rhythm and the experience of all the people who are a part of Holy Wisdom, who cared for us during that time, so deeply, that was the most meaningful, transformative thing for me.”
This transformation was supported by the regular check-ins and communication with her cohort pastors and the Center for Clergy Renewal (CCR) beyond the immersions. “I’d see the people who were in my immersion and remember how I felt when we were together. It’s like seeing a childhood friend and you’re like, ‘Oh, remember how I was as a kid.’” The ongoing connection helped Emily to carve out the time to attend to her spiritual longing. She names the biggest change in her relationship to God since the Immersions as her ability to identify spiritual dryness or longing. “Also, I see it as something that is worthy of responding to and more worthy of responding to than the endless list of things I have to do in my ministry life.”
Emily’s life is still busy, but she finds ways to maintain her experience. Now when her spouse and kids get out the door for work and school, she takes 10-15 minutes to sit with her coffee by the fire or on the front porch. “It calls me back to that experience of spaciousness, self-nurturing and connectedness with the world around me and connectedness with the divine. I don’t think I would have seen it as a spiritually meaningful experience, except that I had the practice during the Immersions. … There are always dirty dishes in the sink, and there’s always things on my to-do list that I could do. But I think it is non-negotiable.”
Emily notices the impact of this shift in experience in both her ministry and her family life. She can be more mentally and emotionally present to what is before her in the moment. With her kids that is particularly evident as she joins them in the naturally contemplative presence children can access as they spend a half-hour in wonder over the way the ants are crawling in the backyard. As she supports campus pastors around the country, she can help them to make their own relationship with God a priority and share some of the wisdom she experienced at Holy Wisdom Monastery. She also notices this shift in the way she is rooted and grounded in her own neighborhood as she walks her dog, greets neighbors and spends time at her kids’ school. “The Benedictine value of stability and investing in your space, your community, also translated into a deeply spiritual experience. I have a relationship with people who live in my geographic proximity. There’s something about that sense of rootedness that’s been meaningful for me, too.”
The rhythm of contemplative experience continues to inform Emily’s life and ministry. Thank you for cultivating this experience for Emily that allows her to carry the seeds of her time here out into the world where they can be planted in others. Thank you for nourishing these seeds of hope for a flourishing world in Emily and the other pastors impacted by the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery.
Emily will be sharing more about her story and ministry along with other local CCR pastors at the Celebration of Ministry Dinner next Friday, September 26th, from 5:30-7:30 pm. Registration closes tonight! Please register now if you would like to attend.