In 2008, Maria Tattu Bowen and Rebecca Bradburn Langer co-founded Together in the Mystery in the context of forming spiritual directors in the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction program at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. Seeking to train excellent supervisors to serve their spiritual direction students from throughout the United States and around the world, Maria and Rebecca created a program mobile enough to form supervisors in their own geographical contexts.
Though Rebecca has since retired, Maria continues to train supervisors, often in partnership with Together in the Mystery graduates. Most recently she has begun working in an academic context through her collaboration with Fordham Graduate School of Religious Education in New York and Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality in Dublin, Ireland, via Pontifical University St. Patrick's College, Maynooth.
Responding to the COVID pandemic in 2020, Together in the Mystery paused both non-academic supervision training and supervision training in Ireland, concentrating on the entirely online Advanced Certificate in Supervision (ACS) program at Fordham. Graduates from the ACS’s first cohort, Tara Owens and Noel Cabigting (of blessed memory), worked with Maria to create an ongoing podcast about supervision called Three Association.
In 2023, Maria invited Fordham Advanced Certificate in Supervision alumni Tara Owens and Vanessa Caruso to bring fresh experience, ideas and leadership to Together in the Mystery. They now co-direct Together in the Mystery with Maria’s continuing participation and support within the ministry home of Anam Cara Ministries. Under their leadership, Together in the Mystery offers virtual supervision groups for supervisors and spiritual directors alike. September 2023 will bring a return to continuing education for supervisors with REFRESH: watering the roots of your supervision practice, closely followed by opportunities for non-academic supervision training.
We anticipate returning to non-academic supervision training for spiritual directors in the Fall of 2023 and in Spring, 2024 we will return to academic supervision training in Ireland. While we are not taking applications at this time for supervision training (except via Fordham’s Advanced Certificate in Supervision), those on our mailing list will receive application details as they become available.
As of this writing, Together in the Mystery has received the blessing of forming supervisors from around the world, including from Mexico, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ireland, England, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States.
Tara Owens | M.Th., CSD, CSDS (Co-Director)
Founder and Executive Director of Anam Cara Ministries, Tara Owens has been accompanying others in their journeys with God for 15+ years as a spiritual director and supervisor. She holds a Masters of Theological Studies in Spiritual Formation, combined with a certificate in Death, Dying & Grieving, from Tyndale Seminary, and the Advanced Certificate in Supervision from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University.
She pioneered and leads the Anam Cara Apprenticeship, which is a relationally-delimited training in spiritual direction, teaches rabbinic Scripture study groups, and leads an intentional community of sojourners in the Anam Cara Abbey.
In addition to her work with Anam Cara, she teaches for the Potter’s Inn Soul Care Institute, Stewards of the Mystery, and guest lectures at various seminaries, churches, and non-profits. Tara is the author of two books, Embracing the Body: Finding God in Our Flesh & Bone (IVP, 2015), and At Play In God’s Creation: A Contemplative Coloring Book (Franciscan Media, 2016).
She lives out her own wrestlings in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog, Brother Juniper.
Maria Tattu Bowen | Ph.D. (Co-Founder/Creator)
With over thirty years’ experience as a spiritual director and educator, and twenty-five years as a supervisor, Maria Tattu Bowen delights in her ministry.
In addition to co-founding and teaching at Together in the Mystery, Maria collaborated in designing the Advanced Certificate in Supervision at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education and teaches in that program. She also offers supervision training through Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality in Dublin, Ireland/St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth and is on the faculty of the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction Program at San Francisco Theological Seminary; Fairfield University’s Spiritual Direction Formation Program; and CenterQuest School of Spiritual Direction.
Maria maintains a private practice in both spiritual direction and supervision remotely and in person in San Luis Obispo, California.
She has contributed essays to such publications as Supervision of Spiritual Directors: Engaging Holy Mystery; Sacred is the Call: Formation and Transformation in Spiritual Direction; Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction; and Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry. [maria@togetherinthemystery.org]
Vanessa Caruso | MA (Co-director)
Pictured here with her husband and son, Vanessa Caruso is a spiritual director and supervisor based on Vancouver Island in Canada. She received a Master's degree in Spiritual Formation and Leadership, then was part of CenterQuest’s School of Spiritual Direction inaugural cohort, and still works for CenterQuest as the Executive Assistant, a mentor for students, and a co-facilitator of the Introduction to Spiritual Direction course.
Vanessa also works as a supervisor for spiritual directors and offers spiritual direction with children, having completed the Advanced Certificate in Supervision from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University, and Lacy Finn Borgo’s Spiritual Direction with Children training through the Companioning Center.
She loves poetry, imaginative play with children, cold water and hot tub dips, store-bought cherry pie, and road trips to her hometown of Santa Barbara, California, with her husband Steven and their son Leo.
Jeremy Frye | Podcast Editor & Administration
Jeremy Frye is a spiritual director, supervisor, retreat leader, and Director of Sacred Community for Anam Cara Ministries. One of his deepest joys is companioning people on their journey toward living into and out of their belovedness. His vocational pilgrimage began with serving for 20 years in full-time pastoral ministry in the local church, which has given him a profound understanding of and compassion for those whose personal spirituality and professional contexts converge (sometimes easily and sometimes causing great distress). He is deeply acquainted with grief and loss as well as the good but difficult work of the disordering and reordering of one’s faith. Jeremy has completed a certificate in Soul Care from the Soul Care Institute, through Fuller Seminary, a 2-year apprenticeship in spiritual direction through Anam Cara, and a graduate of the Companioning Center’s program for Supervision Training. Jeremy lives with his wife, two children, one dog, six chickens, and whoever else needs a place to rest their head at An Téarmann (Gaelic for the refuge), their little urban homestead in East Nashville, Tennessee. He is taking both local and at-a-distance directees and supervisees. [jeremy@anamcara.com]