Thank you for your help!  Contemplative Outreach - Chicago is currently evaluating two programs we may offer later in 2016.  Each program would consist of a series of Saturday workshops beginning in fall 2016 and extending through spring 2017.  We will almost certainly offer one of the programs, and may offer both if there is sufficient interest in participating.  (Note: These activities would be in addition to our annual Fall One-Day Workshop, not in place of it.)  

Please read each program description carefully, and then answer the questions that follow each description.  At the end of the survey, you will find a "comment box" in case you want to provide information or advice we haven't directly asked for in the survey. We really appreciate your input -- Thanks again!

THE LIVING FLAME PROGRAM

One of the programs Contemplative Outreach-Chicago is  considering is called The Living Flame.  This long-established Contemplative Outreach program has been well-received when previously available in Chicago, but hasn’t been offered here in about ten years. Based on Thomas Keating’s writings and programs, Living Flame is appropriate for anyone who has a new or well-established Centering Prayer practice and is interested deepening the contemplative experience. 

Living Flame includes seven day-long Saturday sessions of in-depth spiritual study presented by commissioned presenters from Contemplative Outreach.  Designed to teach the vital conceptual background needed to support a faithful practice of Centering Prayer, the program also offers encouragement and support in a small community setting, heightens the awareness of the purification process, helps discern when psychological skills can be helpful tools, and provides the opportunity to give and receive spiritual companionship.

Prices for the programs have not been finalized as yet, but to cover expenses, the cost of participating in the Living Flame program will be about $280, including all seven sessions. The intention is for all participants to take part in the complete series, in order to receive the full benefits. Scholarships will be available for anyone who would find the cost to be a hardship.

Living Flame workshop themes include:
  • Lectio Divina: Scholastic method, Christian prayer rooted in Scripture, relationship
  • The Refinement of Centering Prayer: Exploring the sacred symbols (word, breath, glance), active/breath prayer, minute book
  • The Human Condition:  True self/false self, emotional programs for happiness
  • Divine Therapy: Understanding the Spiral Staircase, the healing process initiated by Centering Prayer
  • The Dark Night of Sense: Signs/temptations, mourning
  • The Welcoming Prayer Practice: Consent on the go, Mary and Martha
  • The Discernment Practice: Advantages/disadvantages, refining our question

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* 1. What is your first reaction to the Living Flame program concept?

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* 2. If the Living Flame program were available now, how likely would you be to participate?

THE LIVING WISDOM PROGRAM

The second program we are considering is called The Living Wisdom Series.  This new program is designed to supplement Centering Prayer and other spiritual practices.    

The Living Wisdom Program will include five all-day Saturday sessions.  The vision and hope of the program is to deepen the contemplative wisdom in each participant.  Many of the themes are core pillars of the Wisdom School as taught by Cynthia Bourgeault.  These themes are awareness methods, which help us to do our traditional methods with more of our whole being.  Alan Krema, who is developing this program for Contemplative Outreach – Chicago, has been a student of the Wisdom School for the past six years. 

Prices for the programs have not been finalized as yet, but to cover expenses, the cost of participating in the Living Wisdom program will be about $200, including all five sessions. The intention is for all participants to take part in the complete series, in order to receive the full benefits. Scholarships will be available for anyone who would find the cost to be a hardship.

.  The themes of Living Wisdom are:
  • Rhythm of Life:  Benedictine Monastic Model.  Introduction of the role of Centering Prayer, Conscious Work, Communal Prayer, Communal Work.   Emphasis on the contemplative wisdom way of knowing.  Guest: A visiting monk from the Benedictine Monastery at Snowmass, CO.
  • Sacred Breath and Sacred Chant.  Touching and sensing our interior through breath and chant. Breath as divine indwelling and divine exchange.  Divine presence and action within.  Body awareness and conscious work.  We will explore contemplative chanting through guided group practice as a means of: expanding attention and presence; deepening embodied spiritual awareness; freeing body, mind, and emotions from habitual ‘blocked’ energies and conditioned attitudes.  Guest: Darlene Franz, D.M.A., whose chants are used in Wisdom Schools throughout the United States and beyond.
  • The Thomas Gospel.  The Thomas Gospel is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus.  It is not a narrative gospel like the more familiar texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John— that is, it doesn’t tell the story of Jesus. Instead, it presents itself as a collection of his teachings, which coalesce around three themes: attention (or conscious presence); divine immediacy (the “nowness” of God’s kingdom); and “singleness” (what we might call “wholeness” or “the unification of being”).  Guest: Matthew Wright.  The Rev. Matthew Wright is an Episcopal priest working to renew the Christian Wisdom tradition within a wider interspiritual framework.
  • Heartfulness and Wholeness.  In this workshop, we will look at the heart as an organic system of perception, including spiritual perception.  We will explore incorporating a practice of heart awareness in daily life, in the practice of Centering Prayer, and in relation to Thomas Keating’s teaching of the internal True Self – False Self dichotomy.  Guest:  Alan Krema.  Alan Krema has been a student of Cynthia Bourgeault in the Wisdom School lineage for the past six years and is a Wisdom School facilitator for introductory groups.  He is also a student in the Living School of Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, and has been involved in Contemplative Outreach in the Chicago area for the past 15 years and serves on the Chicago Chapter Circle of Service.
  • Welcoming Prayer and Conscious Work.  Welcoming Prayer practice deepens our relationship with God through consenting in ordinary activities.  It helps dismantle the emotional programs of the False-Self system and heal the wounds of a lifetime by addressing them where they are stored – in the body.  It contributes to the process of transformation in Christ initiated in Centering Prayer.  Guest: To be determined.

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* 3. What is your first reaction to the Living Wisdom program concept?

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* 4. If the Living Wisdom program were available now, how likely would you be to participate?

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* 5. If both of the programs described above were offered in 2016, with no conflicting dates, what would you be most likely to do?

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* 6. Please use the space below to comment on, or make suggestions about, either or both of these programs.

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