Occasional Talks

Letters to Peregrinus
read by Rick Ganz

Letter #5: On the Testing of a Married Relationship
Originally Written on 6 September 2015
by Rick Ganz

You can read the full letter #5 on our Writings page here.

Letter #8: On Questions Asked by a 15-Year-Old Girl
Originally Written on 24 September 2015
by Rick Ganz

You can read the full letter #8 on our Writings page here.

Letter #65: The Healing of Language
24 June 2022
by Rick Ganz

You can read the full letter #65 on our Writings page here.

The Lenten Meditations 2022
by Tara Ludwig

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. This year’s Lenten Meditations have been thoughtfully composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.

The Meditations will explore each week a particular area of our common everyday experiences, familiar routines that we might typically think of as “outside” of our spiritual life, and seek to awaken us to how God is already laboring within these habits.

May the extraordinary presence of God you discover within your ordinary life this Lent bring you one step closer in your journey to understand why Christ was willing to die for your beautiful life.

*We acknowledge and thank Kiel Bishoprick, Sound Engineer, for his excellent work in helping create and produce the audio for this podcast.

Week 1: Working

*Christ in the House of His Parents* (1849-1850) by John Everett Millais, hangs in Tate Britain, London

Week 2: Resting

*Jesus Commands the Apostles to Rest* (1886-1894) by James Tissot
hangs in the Brooklyn Museum, New York City

Week 3: Loving

*Christ Healing the Blind* (1615) by Domenico Fiasella
hangs in Ringling Museum, Florida

Week 4: Incarnating

*Adoration of the Shepherds* (1622) by Gerard van Honthorst
hangs in the Pomeranian Museum in Germany

Week 5: Hurting

*Christ Crucified* (1632) by Diego Velazquez
hangs in Museo Nacional del Prado in Spain

Week 6: Being

*The Resurrection of Christ* (1639) by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
hangs in the Bavarian State Paintings Collection in Munich, Germany

A Lenten Evening: Preparation for the Season of Lent
led by Rick Ganz and Steve Moore

On this Tuesday evening before Ash Wednesday, Rick Ganz and Steve Moore help us prepare to enter the 40 days of Lent. We explore what the season of Lent is, why it lasts for 40 days, what we are supposed to do with it, and how to know we’ve done it well.

GANZ NOTES – A Lenten Evening, 1 March 2022 Download

The Advent Meditations 2021
by Tara Ludwig

The Advent Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Advent. Traditionally offered in a written form, this year The Advent Meditations have been reimagined as audio meditations composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.

On each of the four Sunday mornings of Advent, you will receive an invitation to explore a traditional Advent scripture, via an e-mail link that will lead you to that week’s audio meditation. The Meditations aim to enrich your experience of Advent not by “adding” something to your busy to-do list, but by helping you to become more alert and awake to how God is laboring in all that you are already doing to prepare for Christmas.

May these meditations be a blessing to you as you await in joyful hope the coming of Emmanuel, “God with us”.

*We acknowledge and thank Kiel Bishoprick, Sound Engineer, for his excellent work in helping create and produce the audio for this podcast.

Week 1: The Tree of Jesse

*Tree of Jesse* by Georgios Klontzas (16th century)
– Hangs in St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai –

Week 2: The Visitation

*The Visitation* (1491) by Domenico Ghirlandaio
– Hangs in The Louvre –

Week 3: Nativity

*Nativity* (1891) by Julius Garibaldi Melchers

Week 4: The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds

*The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds* (1834) by Thomas Cole
– Hangs in the Chrysler Museum of Art –

The Faber Fireside Gathering

21 November 2021
Portland, OR

The Fireside Gathering is an annual gathering – on the Sunday that commences Thanksgiving Week – of friends of the Faber Institute. It is at this annual gathering when we explicitly ask that those who are of the Institute help us financially. We never have, and never will, enter into a “fee for service” model, because we pass on to you what we have freely received. It is a joy to rely on God for our future, who gives us our friends to help us.

A Talk by Tara Ludwig:

A Talk by Rick Ganz:

From Traveler to Pilgrim by Rick Ganz
A Talk to the Seattle Women’s Literary & Travel Club
25 October 2021
Seattle, WA

The Higher Pursuits Project Summit

A Talk on Hope in Trauma by Rick Ganz
4 June 2021
Madison, WI

Link to the song “Memories” performed by One Voice Children’s Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB6yjGVuzVo

The Lenten Meditations 2021
by Tara Ludwig

The Lenten Meditations are an annual habit of the Faber Institute, offered in support of expanding and deepening your spiritual practice during the season of Lent. Traditionally offered in a written form, this year The Lenten Meditations have been reimagined as audio meditations composed and presented by Tara Ludwig of the Institute.

The core of these Meditations concern six Friends of Jesus, who, each in turn, were to Jesus a significant comfort and strength during His passion. On each of the six Sunday mornings of Lent, you will receive an invitation to meet with one of these Friends, via an e-mail link that will lead you to that week’s audio meditation.

May the companionship of the Friends be a blessing to you, as it was to Jesus, as you prepare yourself to receive the miracle of Easter.

*Theme music for The Lenten Meditations is “A Beautiful World” by James Angelino Piccolo