Contemplative Living II: Daily Life as Prayer – via Zoom
2025-01-01 08:00 - 2025-04-01 17:00 UTC | Internet – Online
Your life is hidden with Christ in God.
– Colossians 3:3
Further enrich your contemplative life and embrace the practice of living each day as a form of prayer. In Contemplative Living I (CL I) the focus is on deepening your interior prayer life, leading to the awareness of God’s presence in all that is. In Contemplative Living II (CL II) the focus shifts towards increased intentionality in how you are living your daily life. You likely have a better understanding of what blocks you in deepening your relationship with God, others, and even with yourself. You are now more capable of looking at your part in relationships and what gets in the way of being and becoming the person God created you to be. Building on the contemplative practices learned in CL I, in CL II you will assess where you are in your life and how you can make choices aligning with your authentic self.
The design of Contemplative Living II: Daily Life as Prayer:
Gaining contemplative attitudes and dispositions through

Contemplative Listening – a practice of active listening in group spiritual direction, raising your awareness of the movements of the Divine within you and others.
Contemplative Discernment – a method of going to God with your questions and desires, allowing the answers to find you
Contemplative Awareness related to Addictions, Attachments and Aversion – using contemplative discernment to surface habit patterns that have become compulsions that you no longer freely choose
The Forgiveness Prayer – a prayer that guides you to follow Jesus’s example to live with hearts open to love
Contemplative Service – a vocation, a calling, or a way of life that’s rooted in living a contemplative life
Commitment to a Contemplative Rule of Life – looking at the rhythm of life you’ve created in this course, what practices have worked for you and that you will continue to commit to in the ordinary activities of your life
Contemplative Living Communities – the support we receive from community enhances our spiritual journey and is helpful to continue in some way at the end of the course

Please see the link below for more information and to register.

Certificate in Contemplative Spiritual Direction
2025-01-29 - 2025-05-01 | Columbia Theological Seminary, 701 South Columbia Drive, Decatur, GA, 30031, United States
The certificate offering is a 2-year formation and training program for persons who discern a call to the ministry of spiritual direction. Applicants will begin Phase I in July 2025.
Certificate in Contemplative Spiritual Direction features:

Contemplative spiritual formation as the foundation
A 24-month Focused Program with home-based assignments
A Cohort Model in a hybrid format (online and residential components)
Facilitated by seasoned practitioners
A Supervised Practicum (One-on-One/Peer Group) facilitated by trained supervisors
Use of the Enneagram in Spiritual Direction for Greater Self-awareness and Spiritual Growth

Read more about the program here. It includes emphasis on Centering Prayer (including a five-day retreat), Lectio Divina and the teachings of Thomas Keating.
Applications Due: May 1, 2025
To complete the application, you will need to submit the following.

One current reference, including name, phone number, and email address.
A PDF or Word document of your responses to the short essay questions, found below.
A non-refundable application fee of $75.

For any questions, please email lifelonglearning@ctsnet.edu.

Centering Prayer and Three-Centered Knowing: A Silent Centering Prayer Wisdom Retreat
2025-02-07 17:30 - 2025-02-09 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Mercy Center Burlingame, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA, 94010, United States
“Centering Prayer … is the opening of mind and heart, body and emotions–our whole being–to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions.”
—Thomas Keating, in Open Mind Open Heart
In Centering Prayer we practice letting go to the Divine Indwelling, building up a muscle of release, of consent to the presence and action of the Ultimate Mystery in our lives. Our Centering Prayer deepens further when we engage with our whole being: mind and heart, body and emotions, as Thomas Keating urges us. In this retreat we will explore Centering Prayer as a practice, in a way suitable for those new to it, as well as for those who have been practicing for a long time. Along with this, we will explore three-centered knowing, not just with our heads but with our entire physical, emotional, and intellectual being. In The Wisdom Jesus, when Cynthia Bourgeault talks about tuning into Jesus as a living being here with us now she says, “It’s not knowing something more, like a new fact or piece of esoteric information; it’s knowing deeper, knowing with more and more of your being engaged.”
Join us in person at Mercy Center, Burlingame, CA where we will gather together and practice silence, Centering Prayer, and wisdom practices of chanting and movement that will help to engage our whole being. There will be some group sharing during teaching sessions, but you are welcome to stay silent at those times too. This retreat follows on the material in our Centering Prayer and Wisdom Introductory Practice Series, but that series is not a prerequisite.
“May the next years see the increase of Centering Prayer, and the creative addition of other wisdom aspects that might enhance what we are doing, or at least help us to do what we have learned out of our tradition, with complete commitment.”
—Thomas Keating, in A Life Surrendered to Love
*For more information on the Christian Wisdom Path, see Cynthia Bourgeault’s book: The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart. If you have not read this book you are encouraged to do so before the retreat, but it is not a prerequisite.
Please see the link below to register.
Leaders
Heather Ruce, M.A. is a Wisdom Spiritual Director who offers Wisdom Practice Circles, Retreats, and Wisdom Schools focused on the expansive Christian Wisdom Tradition. She works within the lineage of Wisdom Teacher Cynthia Bourgeault whom she has been a student of for over a decade. Heather weaves her Masters in Marital & Family Therapy and training in Somatic Experiencing, Organic Intelligence & Spiritual Direction into her teaching and guidance in various Wisdom practices, all in service of waking up and putting on the Mind of Christ. Find out more at heatherruce.com.
Joy Andrews Hayter, Ph.D. is a spiritual director whose offerings include Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices of the Christian Wisdom tradition. These practices encourage us to lean into the Love that is constantly being offered within a relational web of Sacred Unity. As a scientist she sees in the physical world an expression of that love. She is the author of The Cosmic Web: Hope For Our World Through Spirituality and Science, with foreword by Cynthia Bourgeault. You can find out more about her at joyfulfillment.com.
Catherine Regan, Ph.D. is a spiritual director, retired psychologist, and longtime adjunct program staff member at Mercy Center, at this time serving on the Centering Prayer/Wisdom Practices team. She also offers online and in-person retreat days. She is committed to fostering our reclaiming the Wisdom at the heart of the Christian Tradition and the contemplative practices so urgently needed at this time in our world.
