WELCOME, VETERANS!
Thanks for visiting our website.

Thanks you for your service to our country!
Our gratitude to you goes well beyond words!

As you are or have reintegrated into your communities, no doubt you have expended considerable resources on meeting the needs of your family, and on your own physical and psychological needs. But perhaps there are other needs as yet unmet…spiritual needs.

We need to say at the start that this is a website and a ministry for males. Women veterans, too, have given wonderful service to our country. We do not in any way mean to exclude women from our gratitude. But the spirituality and psychology of women is akin but different from that of men. So we refer women to other resources, that cater to the needs of women. [E.g., Welcome Home -- A Listening Ministry for Veterans; at Loyola Spirituality Center (651.641.0008, ext. 13 / www.loyolaspiritualitycenter.org; Sheila Laughton, LtCol, USAF (Ret.) meets one-on-one and in small groups, with women and men veterans and their families, free of charge.*.]


Perhaps, as part of your service to our great nation, you have witnessed things and/or been asked to do things, that have raised larger questions about life in general, and about belonging to our human race as a male…

What do I do with the pain in my life? How do I grieve and heal from the terrible things I have witnessed or done in my past? How can I find the friendliness in our universe? Does God love me? Are there still areas where I need to grow deeper into my manhood?

Once these questions start to be raised, we are not the same people we were before asking them. Religious communities can help. But some issues have to be addressed by men with other men.

So then, how does one address and answer such questions? Do I ask the questions alone? Can others help? Are other men asking the same kinds of questions? Are there answers? Will I be accepted by other men, if I am asking such questions? What next? Where can I turn?

“M.A.L.E.S” stands for Men As Learners and Elders. We are a growing, worldwide group of men, who dare to ask the larger questions, and ask them as men, and support each other in the asking. We are attempting to put together a worldwide community of men, who can then invite other men into such a belonging, and initiate young men into such a healthy community. And as healthy, mature men to engage women and the planet in a conscious effort at co-creating a better future. It is a lofty goal. We work toward such a gathering of men by inviting one man at a time.

Of course, M.A.L.E.S is not the only way help on these issues is available.
But with a community of men, who think and feel as you do, who can inspire and encourage and model and support you, and to whom you can be accountable . . . Ahhhhhhh!


To learn more check out these websites:
http://www.malespirituality.org/   
Richard Rohr OFM        M.A.L.E.    Men As Learners & Elders
http://www.malespirituality-mn.org/
Male (Men As Learners And Elders) Spirituality -- Minnesota
http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/
Center for Action & Contemplation   


If you can want some background reading, check out these books by Richard Rohr, OFM (available at Barnes and Noble and other booksellers):                    FROM WILD MAN TO WISE MAN
QUEST FOR THE GRAIL
ADAM’S RETURN


Then if you want a personal slant, or a chance to ask questions, or a listening ear; e-mail: srobach@comcast.net


* used with permission.   


-- John Parkos & Tom Langlois