Lucy Abbott-Tucker, M.A., Co-Director, Instructor and Spiritual Director, Supervisor

Insight: “As Carl Jung stated, ‘Bidden or not bidden, God is present.’ God is active in what is happening. I can learn to listen and maybe if I do listen, the response (what I am called to be) will come naturally. It’s not the mystery I used to think it was.”

Background: Lucy’s experience working with young children, as a junior high math teacher and as an elementary school principal, gave her a profound love for teaching. It also produced a genuine delight in the wisdom, spontaneity and joy in children that are part of our humanness. “These qualities, so natural in childhood, sometimes become clouded as we become adults, but remain critical to our lives.” This appreciation of our inner spirits, along with the influence of the superb s she had in her own life, led Lucy in 1983 to the ISL program where she has been a full-time instructor since 1988. In recent years, Lucy has traveled to Lithuania for two summers to teach to religious men and women who operate from a culture long-stifled by communism. This work has been a wonderful challenge and a lesson in being respectful of the environment and history of another culture. Determining what to let go of and how to be inclusive in presenting the art and skills of to these post-communist people, for whom recognizing and trusting their inner wisdom is a huge leap, has been another of the many formative experiences in her life. She hopes for continued formative experiences and the personal growth they will bring.

Professional Passion: “Helping people approach the ministry of from a holistic perspective, i.e. recognizing that the Sacred is present in every aspect of life. We can talk about psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical development, but at the heart of it all, there’s a unity which I call ‘the God place’. When we do , we’re trying to recognize this place in moments of harmony or wholeness that are clearly sacred and let them move us to a different action.”

Personal Passion: Lucy is a person of well-rounded passions, from reading and crossword puzzles to playing tennis and bike riding. She also enjoys family gatherings, entertaining and sharing life with friends and doing anything with her husband, Tom. Lucy loves making things beautiful, their home, their garden, and rescuing places in need of a loving touch.

Dianne Costanzo, Ph.D., M.P.S., Instructor, Spiritual Director, Supervisor

Insight: “There is no place where God is not.”

Background: Dianne’s twenty-eight plus years (yes, she started at age four) of teaching at college level and beyond have fostered in her a sense of humility and awe. Dianne feels that she learns much in the exchange between subject matter and those engaged in the discipline. She enjoys putting literature and spirituality together in a way that enables her to articulate Spirit and Mystery. She recently published a book entitled, Seeding Your Soul: Six Considerations for Spiritual Growth.

Professional Passion: “For me, teaching and learning are breathing in and out.”

Personal Passion: When not involved in teaching at ISL and Dominican University, Dianne is actively involved in studying and teaching Aikido, a Japanese martial art based on harmonizing energy and integrating body, mind and spirit.

Ethel Detz, O.P. M.A, M.P.S., Instructor, Spiritual Director, and Supervisor

Insight: Awareness of the world around us and within us and the willingness to be present to and learn from these awarenesses is essential for inner growth.

Background: Ethel began her ministry as a teacher in the Archdiocese of Chicago. She worked in many parish schools in different parts of the city. In addition to her involvement with children and parents she has worked in the area of adult development with school and parish staff members. She has also conducted retreats and days of reflection for staff and parish groups. Before her spiritual direction training at The Institute for Spiritual Companionship she answered a call to minister for three years in South Africa. She worked with children and adults in the city and also the rural area. More recently she traveled to Kenya and spent three months doing initial training for women religious who were interested in becoming spiritual directors. She began working at ISL in the weekend program and is now involved as staff member for the full time program as well.

Professional Passion: As spiritual director and supervisor I see my role as helping to empower others. Often people need only a safe space and an attentive listener to discover their deeper truth. This discovery occurs both in spiritual direction and supervision.

Personal Passion: Ethel enjoys biking along Lake Michigan as well as just sitting and enjoying the beauty of the lake. Her other interests include reading, gardening and crocheting.

Annette “Jo” Giarrante, M. Div., CPCC, Co-Director, Instructor, Spiritual Director, Supervisor

Insight: “ Every experience we have has the potential to transform us. How that experience is observed and processed welcomes transformation. A mindful, reflective approach to the experience is used in order to open oneself to transformation. Often this requires the help of another.”

Background: In her experience as a high school theology teacher Jo was aware that when students talked about their life experiences they were hungry to connect them with their belief system, but needed help. In her subsequent role as a campus minister at a large university, she found that students and faculty struggled to make sense of their lives in the context of spirituality. In both settings, Jo found herself helping people to identify who God was to them and to define themselves within that relationship with God. “Life experience is spiritual. The image of God I hold comes alive as I reflect on who I am and what choices I make.” In 1991, coming to a point at which her old image of herself was no longer the person she knew herself to be; Jo recognized a need to claim her authentic being. She found in the ISL Program a safe arena to reflect and to identify who she was and made choices based on her authentic self. In her role as teacher, spiritual director and programs director, Jo lives out that authentic life and helps others to do the same.

Professional Passion: “I honor the process of working with people who are intentional about their inner journey. This requires creating a safe environment where they go inside themselves, pay attention and observe what’s happening on a deeper level so they can see and understand their feelings and reactions.”

Personal Passion: Jo has been an active cyclist for over 20 years, including: a 260 mile, 6-day Canadian bike trip from Banff to Jasper, the annual Bike the Drive in Chicago, as well as bike paths wherever she can find them. “Biking is an exhilarating hobby where you can go at your own pace and enjoy the adventure of never knowing what you’ll see.” To make it even more fun, Jo, an avid photographer, brings along her camera to capture nature and share it with others via slides and handmade greeting cards.

Jane Higgins, B.A., Instructor, Supervisor and Spiritual Director

Insight: “Living life is always about the present moment. This earthly journey is about entering into that place of Sacred Divine, that space where God dwells and where we touch our connectedness to each other and to all of creation. I have found that inviting Oneness encourages me to hold with quiet and gentleness the places of joy, gratitude, woundedness and sorrow. God invites me to stay present to the mystery of life as it unfolds, to the unknown, to the surprise.”

Background: Jane’s career choices and experiences have come from many facets of life. From teaching kindergarten, working with mentally challenged individuals to a career in community services and prison administration, she has encouraged others to accept greater challenges and to explore all avenues of life’s possibilities. Jane is open to exploring those places in her own life that give her a rich background for being with others as they walk their own path to authenticity. “After a 30 year career in criminal justice it became more and more apparent to me that God was bringing me to that place of spiritual growth where I could integrate my life experiences and embrace my path with committed awareness.” Becoming the caregiver of her mother and attending the ISL Weekend Program allowed her that self reflective time to assimilate where life had taken her and to “be with” where the path was leading. “I have come to know that it is in the stepping stones of this path, both large and small, that we are prepared for the work of God and the path affirms us that we are the work of God.”

Professional Passion: Being part of another’s transformative process is a very humbling experience. Being with others as they explore those places of learning always lights the way for my own growth and calls me to share in the unfolding of another’s discovery of self. Accompanying others as they grow in their listening skills is to affirm them as they listen to that deeper place within themselves.

Personal Passion: Jane has a passion for the arts, travel and having fun. Whether at the opera, finding a new dining experience or traveling, Jane enjoys quality time with friends. Making her home a comfortable place for entertaining, reading or just relaxing is important to her sense of balance. Discovering the outdoors walking on nature paths or sitting by the water feeds her soul.

Patricia Irr, OSF, M.A., M.P.S., Instructor, Spiritual Director

Insight: “I believe the spiritual journey begins in response to an invitation. We bring patience, a certain amount of courage, energy and a developing sense of compassion. In the process, we learn to listen to the one within us who continues to invite, disappear and reappear. Trusting the way of the soul, whether it is a forward movement, roundabout or seemingly backward, is essential as we allow ourselves to know and be known by the One who loves us.”

Background: Although teaching and serving as principal occupied 18 years of her career, it was in her subsequent role, assisting men and women in the process of discerning the life they were being called to, where Pat was first drawn into spiritual direction when requested by some to accompany them on their journey. “My journey into spiritual direction began that simply.” It was her deepening desire to search for meaning that eventually led her to ISL. Pat loves teaching Contemplative Attitude because of the new life and insights she witnesses as the participants dive deeply into their own inner depths.

Professional Passion: “I see participants grow from caution or fear through a gradual trusting of their own individual processing, to the experience of breakthrough and even moments of transformation. It is the experiential quality of the program that keeps it alive and vibrant as participants grow into trusting their own interior dynamic.”

Personal Passions: Pat is energized in the winter by “good reading” everything from murder mysteries and science fiction to quantum physics and its relationship to spirituality and spiritual direction. Her reading gives way to the natural joys of pot gardening and kayaking when the weather warms. The gardening keeps her in touch with nature and a grounded spirituality resulting from mutual care and support. When kayaking, she finds herself at home between sea and sky, renewed, refreshed and opening to the Spirit and to new possibilities in life.

Denise La Giglia, M.A., Instructor, Spiritual Director, Weekend Program Coordinator, Supervisor

Insight: “ I have found interior work to be the most important work of my life. This is a huge finding for someone who places such value in the work of being wife, mother, grandmother, friend, musician…...to know that this work of being in relationship with myself is ‘the first work’ and effects all the other relationships. I am touched over and over again by how this inner landscape waits patiently for me, allowing me my own process and timing to move more deeply within. I continue to grow in awareness of its sacredness and to evolve in my understanding of the faithful commitment to holiness in the journey’s invitation. It is a never-ending quest.”

Background: Denise’s educational choices and her career in liturgical ministry prepared her for her positions as , Instructor and Administrator. With 4 years as a parish liturgy coordinator, more than 10 years as Program Coordinator at the Office of Divine Worship in Chicago, in addition to teaching experiences at the Institute for Pastoral Studies of Loyola University; for the Parish Liturgy Program of the Office for Divine Worship, Chicago; and in various training/formational programs for ministers in the dioceses of Chicago and Joliet; as well as being an ISL graduate herself, Denise brought with her to the ISL experience the skills and talents for sharing this experience with others. “I was also ‘brought to where I am’ by the movement of Spirit within me, having gone through a long discernment regarding the shift from one area of focus which I cared about deeply (liturgy) to another which compels me still (spirituality).” The illness and death of her mother surrounding her 40 th year provoked a deep searching for her authentic self. Something as difficult and sad as letting go of her mother nevertheless opened to her a freedom to ask hard questions, to face her shadows and to bring her truth more into the light. “It was a profound life experience of Paschal Mystery.” Finally, being a professional musician for much of her adult life gave Denise an awareness of what it means to move from skill to art. As with her music-making, she knows “it takes a faithful commitment to the practice of spiritual direction to bring about its artistry.”

Professional Passion: “What I love about teaching is being a catalyst for another’s process of transformation. I love being able to pass on what I have received; seeing the “spark” in moments of discovery; being part of the shared wisdom among the adult participants – an invitation to my own growth and well as theirs.”

Personal Passions: Denise brings passion to many parts of her personal life as well: enjoying with her husband, Frank, the close proximity of their five children and seven grandchildren; making music with flute and voice; reading and discussing what she’s read with others; spending time with her friends and colleagues; and seeing movies and plays with her husband.

Mary Ellen (Mel) Ryley, SCMM, M.A., M.P.S., Instructor, Supervisor, Spiritual Director

Insight: “Attending to my dreams has been a healing encounter with myself and the Sacred.

Background: Mel’s journey to ISL was by way of 10 years as a junior and senior high school teacher followed by an 8-year mission among the poor in the northeast of Brazil. Since 1988, she has been involved in the ministry of spiritual Direction, spirituality workshops, retreats and supervision of those in spiritual direction training. She joined the ISL staff in 1999.

Professional Passion: “Dream work has introduced me to a rich resource of wisdom and compassion for the life journey. Companioning others in the dream experience is very moving. I repeatedly come face to face with the transformative, healing power that dreams hold for each dreamer."

Personal Passion: When not immersed in these activities, Mel likes to have fun – dancing, playing games, bowling or socializing with friends.

David Schimmel, M. Div., M.A., Instructor, Spiritual Director, Supervisor, Weekend Program Coordinator

Insight: “Interior work can sometimes be arduous and lonely, but always enriching! If people stay on the path and takes one step at a time, they will always reach their center.”

Background: David brings to ISL over 25 years experience in adult formation and retreat ministry. With his M.A. in Spirituality from Catholic Theological Union and B.A. in Fine Arts, he works with symbols, myths, and archetypes to creat tools for people to discover their inner wisdom. David presents an experiential approach to spirituality that involves all the senses and provides participants with new ways of expressing their spirituality and their life experiences.

Professional Passion: “The elasticity of symbols can hold and embrace those ‘less neat’ aspects of self that are beyond the reach of the logical and practical.”

Personal Passion: When David isn’t teaching or leading workshops and retreats, his fine arts training and creative skills are put to good use, “creating something pleasing to the eye from whatever is at hand.”

Jane Zimmerman, OP, M.A., M.P.S., Spiritual Director, Administrative Assistant

Insight: “I’m more and more convinced that I cannot be an authentic human being, in whatever role I have in life, unless I faithfully do the inner work of nurturing my soul places in ways that lead to my own growth. Only in fidelity to my own process will I be able to be present to another effectively and authentically, whether as a spiritual guide, as an administrative assistant or friend.”

Background: Jane’s first career was as a teacher in the Chicago Archdiocese. As if this weren’t enough, Jane concurrently became a media specialist, creating the first media-integrated instructional materials center on the south side of Chicago and running an in-house TV news program using students from grades 1-8. Building on these high tech skills, Jane made the shift after 28 years to working in a communications office; becoming a photographer and videographer for a quarterly magazine and setting up and running a professional-quality darkroom. Feeling a leaning toward the spiritual direction ministry and understandably seeking a slower pace to life, Jane attended the ISL Program in 1994-1995. Now, while serving as a spiritual director, she also manages the front office at ISL and is happy to field your calls and e-mails. In 2004, Jane traveled to Ireland for a mini-reunion with five of her ISL classmates from the UK. In addition to fun and sightseeing, the group shared their stories of the intervening ten years. “It was a great affirmation for me and them as well, that the learnings of ISL are still bearing good fruit.”

Professional Passion: “I really enjoy accompanying people as they share their sacred stories. I stand on holy ground as a privileged witness to the unfolding wisdom in these stories. Words spoken and unspoken hold mystery and meaning. It’s an awesome joy to participate with the Spirit in this work!”

Personal Passions: Jane is a knock-out gourmet cook. She enjoys starting her vegetable garden from seed every February and tasting the fruits of her labor through the growing season. She loves to take off and go fishing, whether in Lake Michigan or the ocean waters around her Florida home town. When she has the chance, she enjoys snorkeling on the coral reef off Key Biscayne and Key Largo. And, she has maintained an impressive stamp collection since her childhood, specializing in U.S. stamps.