Janet K. Ruffing, RSM. Professor of Spirituality and Spiritual Direction. B.A. Russell College, Burlingame, CA. CTS, Institute of Spirituality and Worship, Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, MAS (Applied Spirituality) University of San Francisco, STL. Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, Ph.D. (Christian Spirituality) Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA

Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education.

Office:

Fordham University
441 E. Fordham Road
Keating Hall Room 3030
Bronx, New York 10458

Email:

ruffing@fordham.edu

Phone:

(718) 817-4816

Fax:

(718) 817-5532

Subjects Taught:

Contemporary Christian Spirituality

Discernment of Spirits Through Selected Mystics

Meditation: East and West

History of Christian Spirituality I and II.

Spirituality of Leadership

Supervised Practicum in Spiritual Direction

Theology of the Human Person

Theology and Practice of Spiritual Direction

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Biography:

Originally from California , Janet K. Ruffing, a Sister of Mercy, joined the Graduate School of Religion Faculty upon graduation from the GTU in 1986. Her previous ministries included a dozen years in secondary education in Mercy and Diocesan High Schools in Northern and Southern California , teaching religious studies and English. She also was involved in retreat work, diaconate formation, and spiritual direction, pioneering a program called Fully Alive, a holistic workshop for sisters, clergy, and lay people.  At Fordham, she has chaired the concentration in spirituality and spiritual direction since her arrival, creating a nationally and internationally recognized program for spiritual directors.  She has lectured and given workshops in Australia , Canada , Ireland , England , Belgium , France , New Zealand , India , Thailand , Guam, the Philippines and throughout the United States . She was a founding member of the coordinating council of Spiritual Directors International, now numbering more than 5000 members world wide.  She was also part of the founding faculty of Mercy Center , Burlingame ’s Summer Internship in Spiritual Direction. As a Sister of Mercy, she has a deep interest in apostolic religious life and frequently addresses leadership groups, formation directors. and religious congregations.  She writes on mysticism, spiritual life and the interface between spirituality and psychology.

For Curriculum Vitae click here.

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Current Interests and Research:

Beginning with her dissertation on Spiritual Direction and Narrative (1986) she has remained keenly interested in spiritual direction as a narrative process. She has recently completed To Tell the Sacred Tale: Spiritual Direction and Narrative to be published soon by Paulist Press that draws on case material from her experience with directees and students for many years as well as postmodern undersatndings of the self, narrative theology, and neuroscience that supports understandings of the narrative creating self. She has also just completed a historical essay, "The Epistolary Soul-Frienship of Elisabeth Leseur and Soeurr Marie Goby" to be published by Studies in Spirituality at Njimegen. Since 2006, she has been giving workshops on Love Mysticism and Spiritual Direction and plans to develop that material into a book.

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Recent Publications:

Books in Print:

• Selected Writings of Elisabeth Leseur. CWS. Mahwah: Paulist, 2005.
• Spiritual Direction: Beyond the Beginnings. Mahwah: Paulist, 2000.
• Essays on Mysticism and Social Transformation (Ed.) Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2001.

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS

Historical Essays:

• “Catherine McAuley and Non-Violence” MAST Journal. Summer, 2007.
• "Catherine McAuley's Quaker Connection"
• "Catherine's Spirituality of the Cross"
• “Introduction” to Elisabeth Leseur. Journal et pensees de chaque jour. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2005. 7-74. Translated trans. Micheline Triomphe."
• “Elizabeth Leseur’s Spirituality of the Communion of Saints”. Mast Journal 15,2, 2005. 33-40.
• "Elizabeth Leseur: A Strangely Forgotten Modern Saint"
• "Elizabeth Leseur: Wife and Mystic in a Wordly Milieu"
• "Physical Illness: A Mystically Transformative Element in the Life of Elizabeth Leseur"
• "Recovering a History of Partnership: American Sisters in the 19th Century"

Religious Life:

• "The Spirituality of Brotherhood” Titus Brandsma Institute, 2007.
• "Discernment Dissected"
• "Fire Cast on the Earth: Spiritual Implications for Mercy in the 21st Century"
• “Discernment and Our Vow of Obedience”. Mast Journal 14, 2004, 20-25.
• "A Burning Love Ignited: The Experience of Call in Religious Life"
• "Exercising Power and Discerning Spirits"
• "The Gift of Celibate Friendship and Intimacy"
• "Going Up into the Gaps: Prophetic Life and Vision"
• "Visiting a Scene of Election"
• "Celibacy and Contemplation"
• "The Passage of Mercy Life into the Third Millennium"
• "The Burning of the Heart for all Creation"
• "Leadership a New Way Part II"
• "Leadership a New Way Part I"
• "Enkindling the Embers"
• "Seeing in the Dark"
• "Mother-Daughter Remnants in Religious Life"
• "It Matters How We Tell the Story of Religious Life"

Spiritual Direction and Supervision:

• “Opening One’s Heart to Another: The Rediscovery of Spiritual Direction” Conversations. Spring 2007. 6-13 .
• “To Tell the Sacred Tale: Spiritual Direction and Narrative” New Theology Review. Summer 2003. 38-52.
• “An Integrated Model of Supervision in Training Spiritual Directors” Presence. February 2003 ,24-30
• "Flesh is more than Flesh Sexuality and Spirituality in Spiritual Direction"
• "Liturgy and the Ritual Process during the directed retreat"
• "Supervision and Spiritual Development"
• "Look at Every Path Closely and Deliberately"
• "Encountering Love Mysticism"
• "Spiritual Direction An Instance of Christian Friendship or a Therapeutic Relationship"
• “Review Essay: Recent Literature and Emerging Trends in Spiritual Direction” Spiritus, 3. Spring 2002. 99-107.
• "When Directors and Directees are at Different Levels of Psychological and Spiritual Development"
• "Training, Mentoring and Supervision"
• "Retreats in Transition"

Mysticism:

• "Hearing Voices: An Interpretation of Contemporary Locutionary Phenomena"
• "Spirituality, Sexuality and Embodiment"
• "Jesus A Feminist Mystical Perspective"
• "Ignatian Mysticism of Service"
• "Knitting together Mind, Body and Spirit"
• "The World Transfigured Kataphatic Religious Experience"
• "You Fill up my Senses"
• "An Option for Women"
• "Introduction to Essays in Mysticism and Social Transformation"

Spiritual Life:

• "Martha and Mary"
• "Socially Engaged Contemplation (Living Contemplatively in Chaotic Times)"
• "Loosing the Cords which Bind: Forgiveness and Reconciliation"
• "Unacknowledged Conflicts-Prayer and Morality"
• "The Human Experience of Prayer East and West"
• "As Refined by Fire"
• "Prayer During Life's Transitions"
• "The Demon of Busyness"
• "Sexuality and Spirituality"

Other Topics:

• "Personality Science"
• "Affirmative Way"
• "Meditation Christian Perspective"
• "Intimacy and Mutuality with God"
• "Power Authority"
• "Psychology as a Resource for Christians"
• "StoryTelling in the RCIA Process"
• "Embodied Family Spirituality"
• "Spiritual Companions"
• "Resurrection and Beyond: the Fourth Week"

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