The Spiritual Practice of You: Finding Your Center

Last updated on: March 30, 2024 at 5:00 pm By Rob Giannamore

I was talking to a consultant I have been working with recently and she brought up the idea of grounding with my clients. In this essay, I aim to discuss the therapeutic usefulness of grounding and specifically, the contemplative practice of centering prayer. Therapy I have been practicing as a therapist or minister for about twenty-seven years. In my ministerial work, I have studied contemplative prayer and lifestyle when I was considering Catholic priesthood and monasticism. As a therapist,... Read more

The Trickle Down Effect of Authoritarian Parenting

Last updated on: March 28, 2024 at 2:26 pm By Rob Giannamore

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I have been a therapist, pastor, and social worker for 22 years. I have observed a lot of people from the other side of the chair. Parenting and theologies of God are most frequent conversations that I have these days. In a series of essays that I will put out over the course of the next year, it is my aim to show how we as an aging church have isolated our youth both in the way we parent... Read more

Aging and the Older Athlete: A Spiritual Practice of You

Last updated on: March 24, 2024 at 7:03 pm By Rob Giannamore

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It is curious when you realize that you are the same age as the people you thought were old in high school. In an article from a website entitled “Do You Remember” (https://doyouremember.com/169911/retrospective-aging-influences-perspective which references this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjqt8T3tJIE&t=104s ), the author considers the idea of “retrospective aging”. Here, the author discusses why people of the past looked older even though they may be same age as the person looking at the picture in the present. Essentially, the author and the... Read more

The Spiritual Practice of Intention

Last updated on: March 21, 2024 at 3:23 pm By Rob Giannamore

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“Giannamore! Move with a sense of purpose!” my Drill Instructors used to say when I was in the Army. At almost 47, I still consider my 18th summer spent in Army Basic Training (USAR) the most transformative summer of my life. At that point in my life, I had already spent four years in high school in a Junior Reserves Officer Training (JROTC) program that set me up for discipline and purpose that carries on today. I would go on... Read more

Shadow Work: The Spiritual Practice of You

Last updated on: March 18, 2024 at 11:13 am By Rob Giannamore

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Allegory of the Cave I am teaching an Intro to Philosophy course in a couple of weeks and one of the stories I will be having my students look at is Plato’s classic Allegory of the Cave. If you have not read this, you can find it here. People mistake the appearance of what is in front of them as reality and live in ignorance (quite happily, for ignorance is all these people know). However, when parts of the truth... Read more

A Pluralist View on Lovingkindness

Last updated on: March 14, 2024 at 12:01 pm By Rob Giannamore

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I have written quite a bit over the years on the topic of lovingkindness, though mostly from an Eastern perspective. For much of this post, I want to look at some western perspectives before turning back to the eastern. While lovingkindness in the eastern sense has more to do with one’s relationship with another person (it also shows up in the Christian context, specifically (Genesis 20:13; 21:23; Joshua 2:12)), lovingkindness from a Christian perspective has more to do with... Read more

Strong Women

Last updated on: March 10, 2024 at 6:51 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Girl Dad I am a girl dad. I have been one for 21 years. Four girls. Badass women of strength, courage and love. My wife is pretty badass too. She is working on her Master’s degree right now. I am surrounded by strong women, mostly, two of my kids are out of the home for college right now. When I was a young pastor, my wife and I were really into Proverbs 31 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+31%3A10-+31&version=NRSVUE) and while... Read more

A Day in the Life

Last updated on: March 8, 2024 at 2:38 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Five Weeks Out I am five weeks out from my main spring events – Bald Eagle Gravel Grind on April 14, a 46-mile grave bike race in the central mountains of Pennsylvania and Hyner Ultra 25k on April 20th. I have written about the marathon monks of Tendai Buddhism and while my regimen is not this strict, my days start early with lectio divina, prayer and breakfast. After the kids go to school, it is usually a 1... Read more

On Hospitality

Last updated on: April 8, 2024 at 2:20 pm By Rob Giannamore

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Chapter 53: The Reception of Guests The Rule of Saint Benedict is quite clear when it comes to guests. Borrowing from Matthew 23:25, this chapter opens that all guests are to be welcomed as Christ. I find the wording of Matthew 23:25 and the use of this verse theologically significant as to how we are to treat guests. In other places, for example in the transfiguration story, we get a vision of Moses and Elijah, but here, we are called... Read more

Thoughts on Aging

Last updated on: February 28, 2024 at 10:44 am By Rob Giannamore

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My dad turned 76 last week and it really put things into perspective for me. I suspect I will have my dad around for at least 12 more years, given his dad hung around till his late 80’s and my grandma died at 91. As a pastor, I have assisted many families through the dying process, to think about this for my family, it seems incomprehensible. With both my mom and dad and my in laws, we have been... Read more