People and Earth Are One
People and Earth Are One
When called to join a religious community, she chose the Sisters of St Francis because they had schools on the Crow Reservation in Montana. She taught in an African-American school surrounded by projects in Kansas City in the sixties and in 1974 moved to Crow and Northern Cheyenne country. There, she was welcomed into the ceremonies and traditions of the people, adopted into a Crow family, and taken as sister by a Northern Cheyenne woman. Learning Crow and Northern Cheyenne spiritualities and cosmologies gradually reshaped her worldview, uniquely preparing her to study the scientific universe story and weave its implications into her faith and life.
Sister Marya Grathwohl, OSF
Marya Grathwohl grew up in a working class neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio in the shadow of a Hopewell-Adena Mound. On a street full of houses and garages, that mound loomed huge in her consciousness. She was convinced it was sacred. She'd think about the Indian children who once had played in what was now her yard.
Marya holds a B.A. in English from Marian College, Indianapolis and has earned Masters Degrees in Creation Spirituality (Loyola/Mundelein, Chicago) and in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (California Institute of Integral Studies, San Franscisco). She has been speaking, facilitating workshops, and giving retreats for over twenty-five years, and in 2001, she and Sister Helen Prejean began co-presenting their seminar, "One Life: People and Earth."
Marya comes from a rich background in scripture, spirituality, human rights work, Earth Literacy, and bioregional and deep ecology studies. She is committed to personal, spiritual and cultural transformation that is beneficial to people and Earth.
Her forthcoming book, "After the First Thunder: An Unexpected Spiritual Journey," will be published by Riverhead/USA Penguin. In it, Marya integrates her experiences in diverse cultures with Christian faith, her commitment to justice and a vibrant Earth Community, and the 13.7 billion year story of the Universe.
Some of her achievements include:
-Initiating and directing the revitalization of the Sisters of St. Francis 350 acre farm as a working organic farm and center for education and spiritual renewal.
-Planning and implementing environmental design for a women's center, incorporating into the center's expansion wind, solar and geo-thermal energy systems, a greenhouse and raised-bed gardens, water catchment, mixed-grass prairie restoration and xeriscaping, and use of recycled materials.
- Serving as staff member and teacher in the Genesis Farm Earth Literacy Masters' Degree Program: the spirituality component.
- Creating and teaching a leadership and ministry course for eight parishes in Crow and Northern Cheyenne country, Montana.