Charlotte Ostermann

I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity.  Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!

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Talks for Writers and Artists

Three-Dimensional Transcendentals

We need writers and artists who can translate Truth, Beauty and Goodness into form. We artists also need help seeing what our role is in the Body of Christ. This talk was created for the Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization, and can be tailored to meet your group’s needs.  Thoughts from this were incorporated into my talk for the Chesterton Conference, called Joy in Three Persons.

Overheard at the Salon

As a founding member of the Catholic Creatives Salon, and of the Living Poem Society, I have a wealth of great material for talks of interest to other creative types! I love to discuss the tremendous importance of the arts in spiritual formation and education; the place of creativity in the life of the human person (hint: it’s NOT just for ‘artists’); the finding of freedom within form; the process of owning and investing in one’s own creative work, etc… For me, teaching, writing, speaking, designing workshops – all are opportunities to create a work of art. Contact me to ‘commission’ a piece.

The Glory of Form

For the Contemporary Religious Artists Association, October, 2013: reflections about the Catholic understanding of form in music, poetry, architecture and personhood, and the experience of art as a spiritual practice. The arts can in-form our spiritual lives, and our faith is expressed in creative forms that draw radiance from the Liturgy.

Reflections of an Inside-Out, Upside-Down, Backwards Book Publisher

For the Topeka chapter of the National League of American Pen Women in 2012, the surprising story of my book, Souls at Rest – the inside scoop for fellow writers and artists.

Writing For the Cause

For pro-life college students: This talk is equally applicable to any group learning about influencing public opinion through letters to editors.

Chesterton on Art

For the Catholic Creatives Salon: Some of G.K. Chesterton’s thoughts on art (did you know he was trained as an artist?) – the whiteness of chalk, the value of doing things badly, the importance of framing, whether poetry should rhyme, etc…. Chesterton as artist contributed mightily to my talk for the Chesteron Conference, Joy in Three Persons.

A Prayer, A Poem, A Person, A Place

What does it mean that a person is God’s ‘poema’ – His workmanship? A poem has the capacity to be a place of encounter, and as such mirrors the human person in his fullness. Any artist will enjoy this talk!

Organization for Creative Minds

How an organizational system can help move your ideas from their ‘seed’ stage, through to reality and fruitfulness.

Man As Icon of the Prosopon

The four types of icon (per St. John Damascene) and the significance of the Icon of the Divine Mind for creative artists.

Mystery and Manners

Advice from Flannery O’Connor’s book by this title about the difference between art and propaganda, the limits of art, and the responsibility of the artist for Truth-telling.

The Mind of the Maker

A discussion of Dorothy Sayers’ insights, from her book by this title, into the creative mind of God, its correspondence to the human creator, and the significance of His creative nature to our understanding of the human person.

The Poetic Reader

Poetic Reading is not just reading poetry! Poetic Reading cultivates the wholeness of the reader, because it engages her whole being. It is, first of all, ordered to leisure, to freedom, to the context rather than the content of reading. Poetry, intellect, delight, sensory experience – I help readers develop an integrated approach to all different kinds of reading material.

 

Need a speaker for your next event? Contact me and we’ll get started:

 

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Free for You: Motherheart Collection

Upschooling

Souls at Rest: An Exploration of the Eucharistic Sabbath

Souls At Work: An Invitation to Freedom

DARE YOUR SOMETHING!

JOY! JOY! JOY!

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Blogging About My Talks

Building the Bridge

This is my most-requested audio – about how we can educate our children well, despite our own inadequacies. The Problem – We must get kids from where they are, to where they need to be; from ‘uneducated’ to ‘educated’. Given the poverty of our own education, we feel asked to do the impossible: build a […]

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Putting Down Sabbath Roots

Some audiences want to cut right to the chase: “Give us practical applications of all your ideas about Sabbath-keeping.” OK – here you go: In this talk I do just that – give concrete, practical ways to dip into the kind of leisure that brings  interior equanimity and leaves you more whole, more human, more […]

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Women on the Way to Healing

I prepared this talk for the Heart of a Woman group, in Kansas City, shortly after the suicide of a Catholic mother of ten. It was a shock to me, but not entirely unexpected, as I had known her during the years she struggled with depression and disintegration, despite her devotion to the Church, Christ, […]

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High Resolution Beauty

For an Apostles of the Interior Life Women’s Retreat, where the theme was “The King Desires Your Beauty,”  I prepared this truly interesting talk. Will you believe me when I say that this is another of my favorites?!?! I know, I’ve said that about a  lot of these talks, but revisiting them to give a […]

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Sabbath is a Woman

I once asked a friend who calls herself a Jewish-Catholic if it had been hard for her to accept Mary’s role in Salvation History. She laughed and said, “Heck no! Every Sabbath was begun by a Jewish mama’s prayers! I’d have been suspicious if Lord Sabbaoth hadn’t come through a woman.” Jewish women welcomed Sabbath […]

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The Veiled Self

Differences between the original myth of Cupid and Psyche, and C.S. Lewis’ retelling of the myth in Till We Have Faces have the effect of revealing new dimensionality in the Christian understanding of both myth and of the human person. The pre-Christian myth, like the pre-Christian person, is veiled in a darkness that constitutes a […]

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About a Landscape

In “Stour Valley and Dedham Church”  Constable has painted the Vale of Dedham – a familiar and beloved area of his native England.

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A Merry Drinker

 “The Merry Drinker,” by Frans Hals This is a portrait of an unnamed man, called in the title only ‘a merry drinker’.

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A Wedding Feast

Giotto’s painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, portrays the literal and spiritual senses of this story.

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St. Francis Altar

Berlinghieri’s St. Francis  appears behind the altar of San Francesco in Pescia, Italy. It is an excellent example of art ordered to divine worship.

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More Posts About Art

Tags

art artist Beauty Brick capacity Catholic Chesterton Christ Church communication community conversation creativity culture dialogue Education evangelization form formation freedom friendship fun healing Homemaking imagination intellectual life interior life leisure love motherhood Parenting person Personhood play Poetry prayer reading reality response Sabbath senses unity Women work writing

I’m a Member:

Family – Apostles of the Interior LIfe

Communion & Liberation

Association of Catholic Women Bloggers

Catholic Writers Guild

Catholic Creatives Salon

Northeast KS Chesterton Society

Sursum Corda Polyphony Ensemble

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

Friends of Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

Well Read Mom

The Table – Christian Writers in Conversation

A is for Atmosphere

A mom is the caretaker of a huge, wonderful, potentially beautiful, critically important place! She, herself, this actual, unique person, is the single most important ‘environment’ in the lives of her children. Like Mary, like the Church, she is an atmosphere. She is an atmosphere of affection. This is not just warm, fuzzy feelings, but […]

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Three-Dimensional Transcendentals

Benedictine College hosted a Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization in 2014. The theme was Transcendentals as Preambles to Faith, and I got to propose my take on that as a paper. Anyone who knows me could probably have bet good money I’d do something ‘three dimensional’ with that, and they’d have won those bets. […]

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A Prayer, A Poem, A Person, A Place

I once got a chance to do an all-day retreat with one of the sister Apostles of the Interior Life. Naturally, I wanted to discuss the role of leisure in the formation of persons! As usual, I prayed about the upcoming event, and God brought together several threads of my contemplation to weave this talk. […]

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Living Poems

Did you know YOU are a poem? Check out Ephesians 2:10, where the Greek ‘poema’ is usually translated ‘workmanship’. I like ‘poema’ better, as it implies beauty and artistry, but ‘workmanship’ is nice. I’ve discussed the importance of poetry, poetic education, poetic imagination and poetic reading in many different venues (many of the talk topics […]

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More Posts About Education

  • Charlotte Ostermann on Creativity
  • What About Gaudi?
  • Enchanted Education
  • Poetry Workshops
  • Stratford Caldecott Bibliography
  • Welcome to Bright City

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