At 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11, translator, poet and writer Mark S. Burrows, Ph.D., will present “An Evening to Discover … Saving Beauty: Cultivating an abundant life in a time of pandemic.” The presentation will be held in the Dugan-Gorges Conference Center on the Newman University campus.
All are welcome to attend this free event, however, a suggested donation of $20 to allay the expenses of the speaker is greatly appreciated. Please address any checks to the ASC or bring cash; no change will be available.
About the talk
Burrows says beauty is the heart of what matters, and perhaps the heart of matter itself.
“It offers us a sense of abundance in the midst of want, and gestures toward a wholeness among the fragments of our lives,” Burrows says. “In this long season of pandemic, with the isolation and uncertainty it has brought upon us, finding beauty — and being found by it — is essential to survive, if not also to thrive.”
During the event, guests will open themselves to the renewing wisdom of poets and artists, exploring Dostoevsky’s claim that “beauty alone will save us.”
“Why? Because it has the power to awaken us to the radiance to be found in our everyday lives, in the midst of our struggles and fears,” Burrows says. “Experiencing beauty can help us learn to see things ‘whole’ in ways that inspire and encourage us to lead more grounded and centered lives. Come expecting to recover a sense of the heart’s abundance and be changed—for the better.”
About the speaker
Mark S. Burrows is a poet, scholar and translator, much in demand as a retreat leader in the US, the UK, and across Europe. From 2013 to 2020, he taught religion and literature at a university in northwestern Germany and is an award-winning translator of German poetry. His recent poetry collections include “The Chance of Home Poems” (2018) and, with Jon M. Sweeney, “Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart” (2017) and “Meister Eckhart’s Book of Secrets” (2019). He lives in Camden, Maine.
