The beautiful quote from Hildegard was paired with this image by a member of our community who helps us with our social media presence, Sarah Eiley. I had been keeping it in a file folder without looking closely at the options for a while and today I opened up the file and was struck by it. Did Hildegard really say that? What a strange and wonderful hidden treasure.
You see, I have been integrating the work of Dare to Lead with the Order of Hildegard community for months now. Not only do I facilitate the curriculum developed by Brené Brown (who oversees her independent facilitators), but I have developed my own little niche in a corner of the Dare to Lead™️ Facilitators integrating her research into formalized studies on religious shame as an obstacle to spiritual wholeness (as a part of my DMin). Dare to Lead is the result of extensive research on shame and it fits perfectly with the work of The Order of Hildegard, a community I founded and co-lead. In 2024 we are going to offer a cohort for religious leaders who want to explore this research with the added context of the epidemic religious shame and transform their communities by freeing them from it.
Currently in our community we gather those who have left or are revolutionizing traditional religious structures which emphasize shame and legalism and we learn from their experiences, encourage and affirm their gifts and equip them for leadership, including work in many different vocations and spiritual paths as community chaplains.
We do all of this in the vein of Saint Hildegard, a daring medieval nun and abbess who tore down the patriarchy at every turn, wore resistance like a garland and courage like a habit all while exceeding in multi-vocational excellence and partnering with the Earth and the outcasts.
As Matthew Fox describes her, she is a saint for our times. How did she do it? How did she tear down so many walls?
She knew what she wanted. She knew who she was because she spent hours in silence and hours mitigating her own shame. She refused to be boxed in by patriarchal standards and she engaged God in gender-bent forms and embraced Spirit in the Earth, in studying sexuality, in art, in breaking the rules, in healing, in justice and in community. She dared.
Integration is what excites me the most. The integration of shame research with freedom from religious shame. The integration of Hildegard's daring courage with modern day daring.
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Dare to declare something today:
I am good. I am whole. My desires are beautiful. I have unique purpose. I am different. I am not a problem.
Dare to be grateful for breath. Tears. Waiting. Learning. Hoping.
The future belongs to the daring. They will be remembered. Shame shuts us down. The daring need space, love, silence, a few brave friends, prayer, and passion. If a passion rises up in you and it wants to go forth, give it room. Once shame is named and silenced, you probably have a beautiful , daring dream sitting in the room with you. What is its name? How much more space does it need? Who does it say that YOU are? Dare to declare who you are.