Creating Prayerful Rhythms for Spiritual Direction
Continuing Education for Spiritual Directors
Next session to be announced
“These are some of the things that prayer is. Prayer is rhythm. Prayer is comfort. Prayer is disappointment. Prayer is words and shape and art around desperation, and delight and disappointment and desire. Prayer can be the art that helps you name your desire.” ~ Padraig O Tuama
In this interactive virtual workshop for spiritual directors, guided by Linda Mastro. We will explore how prayer enhances our ability to listen attentively to God and to our spiritual direction clients. We will discuss the importance of maintaining a consistent and vibrant prayer practice for ourselves and consider how our own approach to prayer influences our interactions with our clients. There will be an opportunity to share ideas about how to use prayer in a spiritual direction session and how to help clients create or expand their own ongoing prayer practices. Participants will be encouraged to bring to the session their experiences and challenges with prayer—for themselves and for their clients. In addition to a post-event recording of the session, participants will take home resources that inspire prayerful listening and guide us in selecting prayers that address the spiritual, cultural, emotional, and personal needs of our clients.
This is a virtual program, open to all spiritual directors. A Zoom Meeting link will be emailed to registered participants by Friday, May 3, 2024. When registering, please be sure to include the correct email address to which the Zoom link should be sent.
Friends Day of Prayer: Blessing the Ordinary
Next session to be announced...
During this time of year the rhythm of life picks up pace. We prepare for holidays and holy seasons of great significance in our spiritual and secular lives – Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and the dawn of a New Year. This retreat reminds us that every day is holy and that, when we pay attention, we can be blessed by the ordinary of our relationships, environments, and work. Blessing is a form of prayer that draws our attention to the people, places, and activities that open our hearts, bring us joy, and connect us to what often goes unnoticed. We will use scripture and poetry as models for how to receive and give blessings, a prayer process that can set the tone for the upcoming holy seasons.
Friends Day of Prayer retreats are held at the Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center monthly on the first Wednesday of the month. Everyone is welcome to attend and you can drop into any month. It’s not required to attend every retreat. Everyone will gather for coffee and pastries for the first half hour. Linda will give a morning presentation, and then Mass will be available in the Chapel afterwards. A delicious lunch will be served and then Linda will give an afternoon presentation. Free time will be offered to walk the labyrinth, sit by the pond, spend quiet time in prayer or shop in the bookstore.
Penning Your Prayers
Journaling as a Spiritual Practice
Dates to be announced!
Many people want to enrich their spiritual lives by learning new prayer practices. In this Wisdom Circle,
we will explore how putting pen to paper can be a form of prayer. When we share our hopes, ideas, or uncertainties with God in writing, we may relate to God in a different way.
Whispers of divine guidance take on substance when they show up on the page, revealing clues to our deeper thoughts and feelings about God, about life, and about ourselves. During this Wisdom Circle, we will play with penning our prayers. Using tools like writing prompts and thought-provoking questions, we will let our minds wander back and forth in time. The companionship of the group will help us discover new insights as we practice together.
Each week, we will pray through simple writing exercises that spark opportunities for reflection and
conversation. During the week, you will receive writing prompts to create prayerful awareness and to help
you develop a new perspective about journaling and praying.
This Wisdom Circle is inspired by Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Encountering God through Attentive Writing by Helen Cepero. Having a copy of this book is helpful but not required. The only requirements are paper, pen and an open mind.
Prayerful Listening for Spiritual Guidance
Dates for the next session to be announced
“… the Spirit of Truth is at work in the depths of our hearts – helping, searching, knowing, and interceding. (Prayerful listening) is an invitation to bend a prayerful, listening ear toward that Spirit who is with us always.” – Lois A. Lindbloom in “Prayerful Listening: Cultivating Discernment in Community”
The practice of spiritual guidance has many names: spiritual direction, prayerful listening, sacred listening, or spiritual companionship. In this Wisdom Circle we will learn how to seek and accept spiritual guidance by combining silence, prayerful listening and open-hearted response.
In social conversation, the usual pattern is a give-and-take of ideas and perspectives. In a prayerful listening group, there is an ebb and flow of words and silence. It is within the silence that the Holy Spirit whispers, inspiring us to respond for the sake of the one who has spoken.
During our sessions, we will practice the three essential parts of prayerful listening that take place when a group gathers for spiritual guidance:
- Pray silently, and listen for how God speaks to us.
- Listen attentively as others seek discernment for a specific situation.
- Pray on behalf of another and respond prayerfully to that person.
In the last session we will bring together all three practices for the full experience of a prayerful listening group. We ask that you attend all four sessions. Come on your own, bring a partner, or join with a few friends. People of all faith traditions and spiritual experiences are welcome.
