Francis Bennett

"...I believe that we LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer or Intersexed) persons can be considered to be special gifts of God not in spite of, but precisely BECAUSE we are different and don’t fit within normally accepted societal gender or sexual attraction categories. We have been rejected by the leaders of most organized religions. Simply to survive emotionally and spiritually, we have been often forced to look more deeply into the meaning of life than the average person who fits in more easily....

I choose now to fully honor who I am and aways have been. This is not about trying to find some kind of solace or deliverance from a life of miserable “gender exile”, as seems to fill the imagination of some who have no sense of what it really means to be intersexed or transgender as I am….It is about integrity and authenticity. It is simply time to be me…….nothing more, nothing less...

...our enemies, too, are filled with the Spirit of God. We have a right as beloved children of God to exist on this planet … but so do they. We can afford to be generous because ultimately, we know that we bear the beloved God’s call within our very souls, to just be who we are…….and we have the courage to answer that call…What else could we possibly do?"

Francis Bennett entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemane in 1981 and in the 90’s subsequently lived at a “daughter house” of Gethsemane in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Until recently, he was living in a small urban monastery in Montreal Quebec. He has been a “spiritual seeker” during all those years, practicing in the Christian mystical/contemplative Tradition and working deeply with teachers in both the Vipassana and Zen Traditions as well. In 2010 he experienced a profound perceptual “shift” in which he realized the ever-present presence of pure Awareness, which some would call, the Presence of God.

http://findinggraceatthecenter.com/