Praying Hands, Artwork by Tegan Classen
SPIRITUAL GIFTSUnique and creative gifts (all proceeds go to the ministry and mission). Original watercolors and acrylic paintings, prayer cards (the “Hope and Healing” set includes 49 different pieces of art coupled with inspiring quotes, prayers, and scripture), stationary, posters, and jewelry. All art is created to provide beauty and healing, inspiration, and comfort during difficult times.
CONTEMPLATIVE-PRAYER BLOG
At CONTEMPLATIVE-PRAYER.ORG you will find weekly postings by Debra Classen and guest authors of prayers, monthly journals, book reviews, artwork, scriptures and poetry.
OUTREACH MINISTRIES UPDATE 2010
Health and healing-Right now our ministry prayer cards are at two of the Cleveland Clinic Hospitals in the Cleveland area and we hope to have them downtown this year. The cards are given to patients and their families, and health care providers --offering spiritual comfort and beauty during difficult times. At the end of the year we will expand our ministry Christmas baskets to about fifty or more baskets as part of the "Myriam Project" for a friend's mother who has cancer. We also will be working with a beautiful young woman and school teacher, Francesca DiFiore, who helped out this year with a financial contribution and a special delivery of a basket. This year she will be an even bigger part of the project as we begin preparing the baskets in the fall, and she remembers her mother, Debbie DiFiore, who died from breast cancer.
TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
Join Debra at http://twitter.com/muteswanprayer. With over one thousand 'followers', we are posting a daily inspirational quotes, requests for prayer and announcements of new blog postings.
***Coming soon is a new Facebook account: The-Mute-Swan. Join us as a fan and watch while we build a Mute Swan community.
SHARED STORIES & TESTIMONIES
The Mute Swan gives all of you a chance to share God's blessings and answered prayers. Feel free to share your stories, reflections, poems and prayers with The Mute Swan flock and readership.
Debra Classen Bio
Debra Classen’s Mom used to read to her the Hans Christian Anderson tale; The Ugly Duckling, and as you may remember, the Ugly Duckling grew into a beautiful swan.
This bedtime story and it's message of beauty made a big impression. As Debra grew up
tall and slender, she was extremely shy and considered herself invisible
and awkward.
After high school, she started attending art school in San Francisco until one day life (as she knew it) came to a screeching halt.
On that day, Debra’s Mom and sister came to visit her
in
The grief was overwhelming…for family and friends. Roann Schweitzer was one of those people that impacted the lives of those around her in a special way. Not one person had a negative thing to say about Roann. She was a loving wife and Mother, a devoted daughter, and a caring friend.
Numb with grief and in shock Debra gave up art, married Roger, moved across the country and started a family.
During the next few years Debra
found herself struggling to deal with profound loss and suffering.
After converting to Catholicism, 10 years after her mother’s death,
Debra found her path from sorrow to healing when she rediscovered art, and she
began drawing swans as an expression of her recognition of God’s divine
beauty inside everyone.
Years of reflection and search ultimately inspired Debra to found The
Mute Swan in 2003, in memory of her mother Roann Schweitzer. This ministry is committed to
educating and encouraging others to live a contemplative life. It is focused on discovering the
radiance of God’s beauty in all its forms, including nature, art,
relationships, life itself and even through great suffering.
Dedicating herself to the spiritual and ancient philosophy
of beauty; this message of beauty has found voice through the “voices”
of poets, authors, artists, philosophers, and theologians.
“Know, O beautiful soul, that you were made in the image of God.”
Debra Classen Essentials
Education & Training
¨ St. Mary Graduate School of Theology, M.A. Theology. Thesis topic:The Beauty of Christ
¨ John Carroll University, M.A. Counseling
¨ Kent State University, B.A. Psychology & Fine Arts
¨ Myers/Briggs Personality Profile Qualified Experience
¨ Key Speaker on Theological Aesthetics for The Mute Swan Ministry (2003-present)
¨ Founder & Executive Director, The Mute Swan
¨ Keynote Speaker for International Merton Society (Cleveland Chapter). Read, studied and presented on Thomas Merton and the beauty of Contemplative Prayer for over a decade.
¨ Keynote Speaker, Ursuline College for Alumni Lenten Series
¨ New Source Counseling Centers, Counseling Practice
¨ Editor, The Mute Swan Contemplative Journal (5 years) Community Involvement
¨ Founded and Operated Rosary Project, St. Joan of Arc School (teaching and making rosaries for grade school)
¨ Spirit of Bainbridge Community Newspaper, Staff Writer
¨ T.O.R. Franciscan Sisters Contemplative Community, Annual Workshops
¨ Our Lady of Elms High School, Junior Retreat Director
