Session 1
November 12, 2022
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 2
November 19, 2022
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 3
November 26, 2022
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 4
December 3, 2022
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 5
December 10, 2022
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 6
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 7
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 8
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 9
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 10
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 11
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 12
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 13
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 14
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 15
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 16
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 17
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 18
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 19
11.00am-01.00pm
Session 20
11.00am-01.00pm

London Jesuit Centre

The introductory session is online on 5 November at 11.45am

Online Course Details    

While describing how to become a joyful, peaceful, fully alive human being, this course will help participants to develop and deepen an awareness of the loving presence of God at the heart of their lived experience.  Built on an integrated view of how we can live our lives, it will seek to bring together the spiritual and developmental aspects of ourselves.  This harmony is holiness.  Each week, we will explore how to better understand ourselves and others.  We will describe and practise ways of engaging with others in safe, wise, kind and sensitive ways.  The course teaches inter-personal skills that can be effectively lived in personal settings at home, as well as in parishes, schools, n health care and social care settings and in all pastoral situations.

We will not neglect to consider specific challenges to our well-being, like shame, anxiety, self-worth, addictions, depression and other mental health issues.  Our struggles can lead to healing and to wonderful new life.

If we separate faith/spirituality from our human development, the result is a fractured, divided and confused human heart and mind.   This course seeks to bring together all aspects of our human being into a wholeness, where love, joy and peace in God are found and where they overflow into safe, loving and healing relationships with others.

Week 1 Examining the need for normal healthy change and growth
We all have a deep-seated desire and longing to keep growing in our humanness and in our faiths and spiritualities.  The starting point is our early life experience which hugely influences our views of self, of others and of God.  Remembering and better understanding those experiences which have formed us can be the first steps towards on-going healthy change and growth.  Even facing the wounded parts of ourselves, can lead us further along the path of love for which we long.

Week 2 Self-awareness, the urge to care for others and a growing sense of God
Reflecting on our individual, unique life stories, coupled with learning how to effectively care for others, opens us up to an increasing awareness of a divine, loving and healing presence.  Noticing, accepting and rejoicing in the vital importance of personal feelings, as well as rational thought, brings new energy and hope.  The power of love within us leads to compassionate, tender and wise connections with others.

Week 3 Uncovering the original blessing and coming to know that “all is well; all manner of things are well” (Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love)
We recognise the frailties that afflict us all.  We face the struggles of life.  We must also know and experience the gentle, compassionate and healing presence of God in all the circumstances that make up our lives.  As we learn to listen and to open ourselves to grace, the uncertainty remains but is transformed into much more than resilience.

Week 4 Healthy heart and mind; life-giving faith and spirituality
A pathway is built between a healthy heart and mind and a healthy, spiritual way of living.  Together we flourish, while separated we diminish.  Awareness expands.  Becoming more human and alive, we begin to glimpse the glory of God in people, in ‘ordinary’ things, in places and events.

Week 5 Holiness and wholeness
‘When I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor 12: 10) Can I dare to be myself? Discovering completeness- the divine and the human dwelling in harmony, within me.  What does it mean to be the ‘wounded healer’?  Everyday mysticism.  Continuing the journey.

While describing how to become a joyful, peaceful, fully alive human being, this course will help participants to develop and deepen an awareness of the loving presence of God at the heart of their lived experience.  Built on an integrated view of how we can live our lives, it will seek to bring together the spiritual and developmental aspects of ourselves.  This harmony is holiness.  Each week, we will explore how to better understand ourselves and others.  We will describe and practise ways of engaging with others in safe, wise, kind and sensitive ways.  The course teaches inter-personal skills that can be effectively lived in personal settings at home, as well as in parishes, schools, in health care and social care settings and in all pastoral situations.

We will not neglect to consider specific challenges to our well-being, like shame, anxiety, self-worth, addictions, depression and other mental health issues.  Our struggles can lead to healing and to wonderful new life.

If we separate faith/spirituality from our human development, the result is a fractured, divided and confused human heart and mind.   This course seeks to bring together all aspects of our human being into a wholeness, where love, joy and peace in God are found and where they overflow into safe, loving and healing relationships with others.

Course
Resources

 

Week 1 - 12 November 2022

 

D.W. Winnicott, Babies and Their Mothers, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1992, 89-103.

 

Self-Awareness and a Sense of God

We begin to clarify key moments in our developmental process and begin to see God at work in our lives. Recall significant, formative moments in your life. Consider how God was present in that time and place and event. Take as much time as you need, beginning in early childhood and continuing right up to thepresent moment.  

Week 2 - 19 November 2022

J. Crowley, Encounters of the Heart and Soul. in The Tablet 7 August 2021, pg. 10-11.

Prejudice?

Look at the list of statements below. Complete honestly this list of statements with particular emphasis on feelings rather than rational thoughts.

 

My boss at work is……

My in-laws are…….

Conservative or Labour or Liberal or Green Politicians are….

Vladimir Putin is……

People who refuse to be vaccinated are……

People who break the law are……

The Parish Priest/Religious Superior is……

Sex Offenders are…….

People who upset me are……

The Catholic Church is……

Those who lie, are……

Week 3 - 26 November 2022

P. Collard, The Little Book of Mindfulness. Gaia Books, 2014, 7-17.

 

Anger Styles

There are three options – Hanging on to anger; allowing anger to escalate; managing anger.

What is my normal reaction to feeling anger?

Reasons for hanging on to my anger

Reasons for my anger escalating to rage

How do I manage my anger?

 

Please reflect on the following questions:

How has your relationship with the Lord improved by time of being in the present moment?

What gets in the way of having a present moment focus?

St. Ignatius of Loyola emphasises the value of reflecting on our lived experiences. What experiences have you had that enabled you to reflect and perhaps grow spiritually and psychologically?

Week 4 - 3 December 2022

C. Rogers, On Becoming a Person, Constable&Robinson Ltd, 2021, 183-196.

 

The creation and management of Conditions of Worth  

While shopping in a crowded store with your young child, she falls over and

cries.  You tell her to “stop crying and stop causing a fuss.”  What has this

incident to do with a ‘Condition of Worth’?

 

Please find examples in your life of:

Rapport – the ability to make oneself available to another person in an open and non-defensive way

Empathy – a desire and ability to warmly sense the feelings and thoughts of another person

Unconditional love – a desire and ability to see and accept whatever another person is, at any moment, even though I may nothave the same values.

Week 5 - 10 December 2022

Iain McGilchrist, ‘The singing of things’. in The Tablet 4 December 2021, pg. 6-8.

 

Self-Awareness and a Sense of God

We begin to clarify key moments in our developmental process and begin to see God at work in our lives. Recall significant, formative moments in your life. Consider how God was present in that time and place and event. Take as much time as you need, beginning in early childhood and continuing right up to the present moment.  

 

Please consider:  

What are my needs and fears; my hope and joys?  

Can noticing my needs and fears, hopes and joys, somehow empower and enable me to no longer feel so threatened by others, by events and by circumstances and instead allow me to see in everyone, in events and in circumstances, the presence of the Lord and the salvation he offers me?

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Tutors

Mgr Malachy Keegan

Mgr Malachy Keegan is a Catholic priest, ordained 51 years ago, and an accredited, practising psychotherapist for almost 20 years. He has worked in the U.K. and Europe, Africa, India, North and South America often among poor and traumatised people. He studied Psychology and Spirituality at the University of Berkeley, California as well as in the UK. He worked in prisons in the UK and Europe for 14 years with people who have both suffered immense trauma in their own lives and have inflicted trauma on others. He has been chaplain to a Religious community of Contemplatives as well as a hospital and school chaplain. He is presently a Parish Priest, near Croydon in South London.

MY LJC