Spring 2025 Newsletter
Presentation
Greetings brothers and welcome to the Spring 2025 edition of the Illuman of Illinois Newsletter, an online newsletter put together by Illuman men living in Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Our hopes for this publication are to share insights into how we might support on another on our continuous journey to become more authentic, loving, fully human people. May this resource serve to help you on your journey toward a life-changing spirituality, a spirituality fed by the wisdom traditions of forgiveness and radical inclusivity. As our founder, Richard Rohr, says, all that is required is for a man to come with a ‘beginner’s mind’ and the readiness of a young novice seeking wisdom. Becoming wise men who are grounded in compassion is, as Rohr continues, is not a spectator’s sport. In this edition, Bill McElroy will help us begin to break apart the practices of the Journey of Illumination. This will set the scene for upcoming contributions from other Illuman men who will explore the Five Touchstones in greater detail.
As always, let us move into the future together, joined one to another on this Journey of Illumination. --Bart Hisgen
The Journey of Illumination
I saw a “Thinking of you” card the other day. It is a photo of a young child playing Hopscotch and the caption reads: “It’s when the numbers get higher that life get’s interesting.”
Isn’t that true? Life seems to be flowing along--almost on auto pilot--and we are carried along like a leaf on the shoulders of a mighty stream. Sometimes all well planned out and others kind of following whatever comes next. Either way we can get lulled into a rhythm that can be distracting from the larger picture. When everything is going our way, it is against our instinct to look closer.
Oftentimes it takes something disturbing, even shocking, to get our attention, to envoke an awakening. Life takes an untoward turn and we realize the universe we have created in our own image does not provide the answers we now seek. It can be a series of events in a compressed time frame or a tumultuous event that changes everything; sometimes forever. And the usual stuff isn’t working anymore. We look in the mirror and ask: “What the heck is going on!?”
In modern times, this paradigm shift has been referred to as the “Midlife Crisis.” Perhaps a more apt description might be the “Mid-life Loss of Meaning.” The boat taking us down the river has been upended. This is often a time of awakening…or some call it an adult conversion. The certainties of childhood are now inadequate, the situation calls for something more…something personal...something to ground us.
The practices of the Journey of Illumination (JOI) are such a grounding. The JOI involves five touchstones. In the upcoming issues of this newsletter, we will put some flesh on the bones of these five touchstones. For now, they are the following:
Centering: Show up and Observe
Connecting: Show up and Share
Gathering: Show up and Get Together
Releasing: Show up and Let go
Serving: Show up and Act
As you can see from the Touchstones, being present and mindful of how one lives one’s life is a big part of the picture. If you have not hit this wall yet don’t worry, sooner or later you will.
It is not if; it is when. It is so helpful if you are aware of this BEFORE it happens. It will not get you out of anything, and/but it will aid you in navigating those troubled waters.
Our work is centered around assisting men grow into the healthy masculine, which is so necessary at this time. Come join us in this endeavor.
Together, we can make a difference! --Bill McElroy