Contemplative Witnessing

“Cindy Lee speaks to the grief that BIPOC communities feel at the loss of our sacred selves in a dominant Western system of colonization, colonialism, patriarchy, and missionarism. Through contemplative witnessing in community, Dr. Lee offers practical approaches by which we can restore our sacred wholeness and hold our BIPOC companionees in healing and change. As a BIPOC woman who co-coordinates Year One of a Spiritual Director formation program, I look to Dr. Lee as a trailblazer in our field.”

Vel Roman

“Bold, healing, and deeply moving, Contemplative Witnessing calls us to honor the sacred stories of BIPOC communities, sparking both personal and collective liberation. Cindy Lee invites us to reimagine seeing and listening as radical acts of witness, celebrating our sacred belovedness and belonging. She has a way of uncovering what’s remained unwitnessed in you, freeing you to be seen in the fullness of your past, present, and future—fully divine and deeply connected. This book transforms how we encounter one another, the world, and even our own souls. Let it bear witness to your unfolding sacred story. Be uncomfortable and let yourself be transformed.”

Brenda Bertrand

“Reading Cindy Lee’s book feels like riding the breath of the Spirit as it flows into my heart, body, and soul, filling a deep longing. From a BIPOC-focused lens, Lee uses a rhizomatic approach that creatively enriches, challenges and expands what contemplative witnessing (spiritual direction) and communal care can be, and how these can guide all soul care practitioners in imagining new spiritual experiences and spaces. Through three movements—contemplative witnessing, sacred movements, and communal care—Lee uses her own experience and research as an Asian American practitioner to share stories of other BIPOC people, spiritual practices, probing questions, and other wisdom voices to bring this book alive. I am still resting with how she expands discernment by talking about ways of knowing and how sacred seeing leads to sacred responding in the face of injustice and harm. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for all involved in soul care work as a place of restoration and rest for BIPOC people and as a resource for all to expand their horizons, for people from many traditions or no tradition, formation programs, book clubs, spiritual practice circles, and many more. I will continue to linger with this book.”

Ravi Verma

“Cindy S. Lee offers us a chance to see the genuine in ourselves from a widened scope. Contemplative Witnessing is a must-read as an important corrective to the typical Western, transactional, and individualized framework of spiritual care we hear on repeat. As she puts it so well, ‘Sacred seeing in community allows our human dignity and belovedness to be witnessed and affirmed.’ Few books I’ve read cover this area of spiritual formation with such skill and sensitivity as Lee does.”

Lisa Colón DeLay

“From my perspective as a white man, spiritual director, and faculty member of Stillpoint’s The Art of Spiritual Direction, Contemplative Witnessing is an essential guide and teacher for understanding and holding space for BIPOC spiritual companions and other marginalized folx in spiritual direction. I value Cindy S. Lee’s voice, her ability to challenge normative culture and her compassionate and approachable narrative. This book is integral for spiritual directors and spiritual spiritual formation training for future spiritual directors.”

Rick Sforza