Dear Friend,
This Saturday is the third and final part of Building Your Spiritual Core, a three part series I’m offering here in the Bay Area that allows people to sink into the depths of what TRP offers. The first was a workshop on Discipleship Groups. The second offered an allegorical Grand Narrative of our cultural and spiritual history with some hints of where we may be going next.
This last session offers you a taste of what it might look and feel like when you take the next step in your own process of spiritual maturity. Those of you who have read my book might remember that, in the process of interpreting Benedict’s Twelve Steps of humility for today’s non-monastic Christians, I divided his twelve steps into four stages. The two-hour retreat on Saturday offers tastes of what stages two, three and four are like. It asks you to consider ‘what would life be like for me if I dove a little deeper into the mystery of Jesus?’
Here is a rough description of the four stages I present in my book, with a hint of what to expect Saturday:
• Foundation. In the first stage, we intentionally assume the core practices that have always led to growth. My book weaves the seven vows of Discipleship Groups into this first stage. If you’re in a Discipleship Group and attending to the vows, you are in the process of laying the groundwork.
• Radical Self-Knowledge. Here we attend carefully to the truth that we were ‘made in he image and likeness of God.’ What does that mean for our understanding of ourselves? Where can we turn to help this great truth become the center of our self-perception? That will be my first mediation.
• Stripping. As we go deeper, we inevitably come face to face with some ugly truths about ourselves. How, in a healthy way, can we release these ugly truths? (Which traditionally were given a three letter word that begins with ‘S’ and ends with ‘N.’) Naming and beginning to move beyond those ugly spots in ourselves will be the second meditation.
• Quietness with Strength. The great priest and teacher George Regas often began his sermons with a prayer to God to ‘make us masters of ourselves that we might be servants of others.’ This last stage is about quiet self-mastery. My mediation on Saturday will be built on the passages from Isaiah used in noonday prayer for individuals and families: ‘O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on you; for in returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be our strength.’
I’m well aware that Sunday is Palm Sunday. I believe these two hours on Saturday (9am to 11am at St. Paul’s, San Rafael) will be a fine preparation for Holy Week. As with all three sessions of Spiritual Core, I will be offering these meditations again in the fall. (The dates are 9/13, 9/27 and 10/11). If you’re in he Bay Area, come sit with me Saturday to reflect and pray and create. If you’re elsewhere, I hope some day to share these thoughts with you in person.
Faithfully,
Christopher Martin, Founder