A Conversation with Don Baker: Virtues in Aging | Spirituality for our Wisdom Years Webinar

Originally Published on the website of Oblate School of Theology

May 23 @ 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

May 23 | 1:00PM – 2:00PM Central Time | ONLINE EVENT VIA ZOOM

Registration: $10 | REGISTER HERE

What role do the virtues play in the spiritual life of a person who is aging? How can embracing a mature understanding of virtues as “gifts of wisdom from God” help you to navigate the diminishments of aging with grace so that your life and death remain fruitful long after you have gone?

In this second of a series of conversations with elders who have entered into the final stage of life with grace and wisdom, Dr Maggie Meigs, Director of the Forest Dwelling Program at OST, will have a conversation with Don Baker. Don is 84 years old and is currently in treatment for terminal cancer. As he is navigating this final stage of his life, Don joyfully and thoughtfully creates short videos which will inspire you to live the virtues from a loving and mature spirituality. He combines his love for art, his work as a Spiritual Director, and the fruits of his intense love for God in these compelling works. Don will expand your thoughts about virtues so that they become a source of love and forgiveness rather than guilt and failure. As he says, the virtues are “gifts of wisdom,” and God has given us these gifts as “suggestions” to help us on our journey of life. God invites us to submit our wills voluntarily to this wisdom, and doing so can help us to navigate our own journey of aging with success.

Watch Don’s video on Diminishment here

Tentative Schedule

1:00 pm – 1:45 pm	Conversation with Don
1:45 pm – 2:00 pm	Questions and Comments from Participants

Speaker

Don Baker is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, served as a US Marine Corps officer, and retired from a career as a Hospital Engineer with the Veterans Administration.  He completed St. Peter Upon the Water’s Spiritual Director’s formation program in 2012, their Supervisor training program in 2016, and was a member of their formation team from 2017 to 2019.  In 2020, Don completed the two-year OST Magis Program for directing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life.  Don is also an artist and his art was recently included in the Spiritual Directors International “Presence” magazine.  Together with his wife, Teresa, Don operated an art gallery for several years.  He is currently producing a series of videos on the moral virtues, which are available for public viewing on his “Art and Spiritual” YouTube and Vimeo channels.

Registration: $10 | REGISTER HERE

This presentation will be recorded and will be available for viewing through June 23, 2022. Approximately 24 hours after the presentation, a follow-up email will be sent that will include instructions on how to re-watch.

Students, staff, and faculty from Oblate School of Theology may attend for free. Please email continuinged@ost.edu with your name and institutional email address. You will be added to the attendees list and receive an access link by email the day prior to the event.

For information, contact Emmett Gonzalez at egonzalez@ost.edu or (210)341-1366 EXT 320.