Ursuline Center offers guided labyrinth walks

Staff report

CANFIELD

The Ursuline Center, 4280 Shields Road, has announced its 2015 guided labyrinth walk schedule.

People of all faiths are invited to participate in these free events.

Walks generally take 20 to 30 minutes.

This year’s first guided walk is scheduled for 2 p.m. April 19 and will start with a presentation on the “Spirituality of Labyrinths” in the center.

Participants then will go outdoors for a walk “Celebrating the Earth.”

Also scheduled are these walks, all starting at 6:30 p.m.:

“Celebrating Motherhood” May 12.

“Celebrating Fatherhood” June 19.

“Celebrating Families” July 14.

“Welcoming the Stranger” Aug. 11.

“Celebrating Peace” Sept. 8.

The last walk, “Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis, Showing Solidarity with the Poor,” will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 4.

The labyrinth is a ministry of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown and open year-round from dawn to dusk for all people of faith.

There is no cost to use the labyrinth, which is handicapped-accessible and offers ample parking.

Visit www.theursulinecenter.org or call the center at 330-799-4941.

The labyrinth is an ancient pattern found in many cultures around the world.

Labyrinth designs were found on pottery, tablets and tiles that date as far back as 4000 years.

Many patterns are based on spirals from nature.

In Native American culture, it is called the Medicine Wheel and Man in the Maze.

The Celts described it as the Never Ending Circle.

It is also called the Kabala in mystical Judaism.

One feature they all share is that they have one path, which winds in a circuitous way to the center.

The labyrinth design at the Ursuline Center is a replica of the 11-circuit labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral in France.

This pattern, once central to cathedral culture, was inlaid into the stone floor in 1201.

Labyrinths are used worldwide as a way to quiet the mind, find balance and encourage meditation, insight and celebration.

They are open to all people as a nondenominational, cross-cultural tool of well-being.

Generally there are three stages to the walk: releasing on the way in, receiving in the center and returning — that is, taking back out into the world that which you have received.