The Core Circle is responsible for seeing that the mission and vision of Centering Space is carried out through a variety of programs and activities. Core Circle members are:

Syndie Eardly

I was blessed to have had a profound spiritual experience as a 10-year-old child. Walking down a country road one day with friends, I suddenly felt as if the whole of the earth I was looking at was bathed in light, and that the light was pouring into me, that somehow I was connected to all of it in a profound way. I did not understand it at the time. I described it to myself then that I felt filled with infinite possibility, that my life had potential and that I was capable of filling that potential.

When my life deteriorated in my 20s due to severe anxiety illness, I clung to that memory from my childhood, thinking that if I could get back to that sense of profound connection, joy and light I could find my way out of the dark valley I had been plunged into with my first panic attack.

It took me 20 years of therapy, reading, meditating and spiritual direction to rediscover that way of being in the world. It has been an amazing journey. Raised a Catholic, I became an atheist in my late teens. In a strange way, becoming an atheist wiped the slate clean of “required beliefs” so that as I began my spiritual quest, I was open to exploring my relationship with God and open to understanding how unique and precious is each person’s relationship with the Infinite.

My spiritual practice has included meditation, prayer, readings, retreats, and the creation of personal rituals for healing and growth. These practices have saved my life, becoming as important to sustaining me as food and water. They have also been a tremendous joy, becoming an integral part of my story. While other mundane realities of my life have faded from memory, the richness of the experiences I have had in my prayer life, and the powerful transformative events that have taken place at the heart of my ritual and retreat practices, live on in me as powerful and empowering realities.

Several years ago, wanting to share what I had learned with my children, I wrote “Dancing in the Light: A spiritual primer for transformation and growth.” Today, I am working on a second book, titled “Running towards the Light: Creating ritual to deepen and enhance your spiritual life.” It is the second in a 4-part series that I look forward to completing in the coming years.

I recently completed a two-year certificate program in spiritual direction at John Carroll University’s Ignatian Spirituality Institute, and have been leading prayer and providing spiritual direction through Centering Space for the past two years.

One evening, an attendee at Centering Space prayer said to me, “Prayer is the most powerful tool we have.” I feel that my life is witness to that truth, and find tremendous joy in sharing that reality with others through my work at Centering Space and in my daily life with everyone I encounter.

Contact Syndie

Peggy Gerovac

I believe that everyone’s spirituality is as unique as they are. It develops throughout our lives influenced by culture, religious experience, personality, life experience and so much more. This is an attempt to discuss my own spirituality in terms of self and others who share life with me.

It is important to note that I was born in 1962 in an upper middle class family in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My mother was Catholic and we were raised Catholic. My father was born to a Baptist family but as an adult did not practice any religion in until he was baptized Catholic when I was 19. I was his sponsor or as I like to say it, I am my father’s godmother. So you might say I grew up ecumenical in my own family, my mother’s family strong Catholic and my father’s family strong Baptist.

The first 18 years were a time of great change in the Catholic Church, American society, and my own family. Everything was changing all the time. Around the time that I was born, President Kennedy was assassinated, Vatican II was in process, women’s roles in society and within the family were breaking out and growing fast, youth and young adults were rebelling very publicly, the civil rights movement was in full bloom and my brothers and sisters were becoming adults, moving out of our family home. And all the while I was a baby, toddler and young child.

The “Jesus loves me generation” is me. I learned very well about God’s great love for the world and for me. I suppose there was a certain confidence this provided for me. As I attended Catholic grammar school, I was very engaged in the faith tradition while always trying to understand what I was being taught. We were encouraged to ask questions and personalize what we were taught. Boy did I ask questions. I know it irritated the teachers at times. I even stumped them sometimes. Now I know that that the teachers were just learning as they went.

At least by the age of ten and maybe before, I began a very personal relationship with God. I actually found places of quiet to “be”. You might call them prayer spaces but I did not recognize that at the time. What I new was that I thought of God and I was loved and comforted.

I believe being born in a time of great transition, has led me to open to “the both and” as many people like to say. In my youth, one day could include both Eucharistic devotion and joyful singing and dancing to Kumbaya. All of it was good. It has helped me to be comfortable with divergent theologies, philosophies, religious practice, and spiritualities. I believe the deep conviction of being loved also allowed me to be comfortable, knowing that God will be with me as I find my own way. And God will be with others as they find a different way.

My influences are heavily Christian and Catholic but they run the gamut of conservative through liberal. I have also had wonderful exposure through reading, prayer and personal relationship to other traditions like Judaism and Buddhism. Spiritually, I don’t like to be in any camp but my own. I continue to live my definition of Catholic. As I grow spirituality, my life continues to change and the world evolves. All of these this affects my own life and the way I engage the world.

I am a great supporter of quiet time with God however you name it. Since I have been doing this for something like 40 years and I feel it has been good for me, I want to introduce and help others to have similar experiences. I have found meaning to so much in life during my quiet time with God.

Centering Space is a good place for me personally and I so enjoy providing space and opportunity for others to meet God, on their own terms, in the quiet.

E-mail Peggy

Carol Kandiko, CSA

Looking back over the years, the subtle and persistent presence of the Spirit has always been with me. There was no being thrown from a horse or apparitions of angels. Even my vocation to religious life as a Sister of Charity of St. Augustine involved no big discernment. From my perspective, it simply happened. Vatican II came into my life as an intelligent and spirit-filled process. It made sense in all of its various aspects and I naturally adapted to the fresh breezes of the Spirit.

I have had many experiences of growth and unfolding spirituality amid various life strengthening and stretching events, but the bottom line that has led to my gray-haired “wisdom” has always been the subtle and persistent presence of God’s Spirit.

Over time, I’ve come to recognize that the Presence of God is best encountered in the everyday reality that is life! My love for creation and my encounters with modern day mystics such as evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme, spiritual author Judy Cannato, cutting edge philosopher Beatrice Bruteau, creative visionary Jan Phillips and numerous mystics from many traditions have enriched my own spirituality.

Coming in touch with the reality of a global and interfaith perspective and being at Centering Space has allowed seeds of wonder and surprise to blossom. I am blessed daily in receiving the gift of God’s Presence through others.

Some aspects of my current spirituality are summed up in my favorite quotes:
“Nothing is perfect,” sighed the fox in St. Exupery’s classic The Little Prince;
“Everything Belongs,” the title of one of Richard Rohr’s books; and
“The universe clumps,” my own observation of how everything happens at once between periods of relative calm.

I love sharing spiritual insights with others, planning prayer experiences, and keeping the facility of Centering Space open and welcoming.

E-mail Carol