Living Flame II
+ Seekers went into the desert to follow God with their whole heart
+ Key phrase in the desert tradition:"Give me a word of Salvation"
+ They sought to discover their True Self in Christ
+ What did they discover in the desert?
+ Progression: Thought, Desire, Passion
+ Wisdom Sayings of the Desert Fathers/Mothers
+ Key themes in the Apophthegmata
+ The Eight Thoughts (Cassian)
+ Purity of Heart
Session 2: Monastic Heritage
+ Reclaiming our roots. Telling the story
+ Access of the great Contemplative tradition
+ Handing on the living tradition
+ Continuity that exists in an ever-deeper level of reality
+ Experiencing the living tradition of prayer and supremacy of
love, through the great Contemplative authors, Cassian,
William of Thierry, Bernard of Clairvaux, Guigo II
Session 3: Contemplation and Contemplative Living
+ Review the Centering Prayer method
+ Different approaches to opening to the gift of contemplation
(concentrative to receptive)
+ Cultivating a contemplative attitude
+ Silence, Solitude, Simplicity
+ Practical helps for staying centered in every day activity
+ Conscious relationship with the Trinity, Source
+ Gifts of the Spirit released to guide daily life
+ The work of the contemplative in the light of Centering Prayer
+ Transformation of consciousness
Session 4: Helps on the Journey
+ Identification of losses
+ Denial of the importance of a loss
+ Grieving: unlocking emotional pain
+ Four Tasks of Mourning
+ Inability to forgive, resentment, anger
+ Forgiveness as a healing process
+ Forgiveness Prayer
Session 5: Soul-Friending
+ "Word of Life" of the desert tradition
+ Short history of spiritual guidance
+ Approaches to spiritual guidance
+ Discernment using the OMOH practice
+ Related issues such as: trasference, depression, jealousy,
sexual energy, and dreams
+ Retrieving the practice of "Laying on of Thoughts"
+ Personal responsibility
Session 6: The Psychological Experience of Centering Prayer
+ Method of Centering Prayer
+ Different take-off points
+ The Divine Therapy
+ The process of unloading the unconscious mind
+ Diagrams
Session 7: Night of Spirit
+ Purification of the roots of sin within us
+ Feeling our capacity to sin, our capacity for evil
+ Purification of our spiritual faculties; faith, hope, charity and
the roots of other faculties still in need of purification
+ Beginning of Divine Union
+ Transforming Union: the transformation of the faculties into
the Divine Presence
+ Emotional life free to respond to reality. Life in the present
moment.