Contemplation in a Time of Crisis:
Beauty, Joy, and Love
Saturday, December 5, 2026
9:00 AM–12:30 PM PT
This retreat will be held online and recorded for later viewing.
“Don’t forget the power of community to create spaces of joy when you cannot engender the joy yourself. That joy comes during worship, during fellowship, and even during crisis. I’ve always said, the greatest antidote to depression and oppression is joy. There’s joy coming together of one accord. ”
Description
How do we remain open to beauty, available to joy, and rooted in Love when the world around us feels overwhelmed by crisis?
Advent invites us into the sacred tension of waiting and becoming, of holding both the world’s suffering and the promise of new life. In a time marked by uncertainty, division, and collective weariness, the contemplative path offers something more than escape. It invites us into deeper presence, where beauty, joy, and Love can be encountered and embodied amid the complexities of our shared humanity.
Inspired in part by the transformative scholarship of the late Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, particularly her work on Crisis Contemplation and Joy Unspeakable, this retreat explores contemplation as a way of seeing, being, and responding to the world.
Together, we will explore three interconnected invitations:
Beauty: Cultivating the capacity to notice and receive beauty, even amid brokenness and uncertainty.
Joy: Rediscovering joy as a profound spiritual resource, one that can coexist with grief, resistance, and the realities of suffering.
Love: Deepening our capacity to embody Love through presence, compassion, courageous hospitality, and meaningful action.
Through contemplative practices, reflection, and shared conversation, Leonetta Elaho, Dr. Donny Bryant, and Jasmine Bellamy will guide us in exploring how these gifts nourish our inner lives and shape our engagement with the world.
This Advent, we invite you to discover that beauty, joy, and Love are not waiting for the crisis to end. They are invitations to live more fully, faithfully, and courageously within it.
Be Still. Belong. Become.
Cost : $50
Leonetta Elaiho is a creative contemplative that thrives at the intersection of culture, faith and social justice. The arc of her work has always bent towards the margins and her desire for radical inclusion of the typically excluded.
An aesthete, she is a big believer in beauty and its constant presence and invitation to us—even amidst our deepest struggles. Leonetta is a spiritual companion and coach committed to working in support of BIPOC leaders to experience holistic wellness and liberation. Her personal practice and communal offerings include spiritual care services, organizational consulting, workshop facilitation and teaching, resource and content creation, and other healing modalities. You can learn more about her spiritual practice at www.beautifulle.com.
Dr. Donny Bryant is the founder of Alden, with the goal of providing healthy cooking oils to the world. The company has grown to be a major supplier domestically and internationally of Organic and Non-GMO refined food grade cooking oils and market leader with the LifeOiL consumer brand, offering a full line of specialty seed oils (sunflower, canola, corn, soybean and avocado). Donald is a graduate of Michigan State University where he received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He also has an MBA from the Broad School of Management (Michigan State University) and he also has a D.Min. from Luther Seminary.
Jasmine Bellamy is the Executive Director of Stillpoint: The Center for Christian Spirituality and the founder of Love 101 Ministries and The LOVING Leader. A spiritual director and contemplative preacher, she is a doctoral candidate at Fuller Seminary, where her research centers on how love forms the inner life of leadership. She is a graduate of Stillpoint’s BIPOC Spiritual Journey Program and received her Certificate in Spiritual Direction through Liberated Together. Through her work, Jasmine integrates contemplative practice, spiritual formation, and leadership development to support individuals and communities in living and leading from love as a daily practice.
Questions? Contact Stillpoint Director of Operations, Krystle Hart : khart@stillpointca.org