To Sunday, April 11, 2021 - 12:00pm
Insights and Practices for Growth and Healing in our time.
“The ‘Spiritual Journey” is a metaphor for how our beliefs change and develop throughout life. In the beginning, we often do not realize that we have entered upon a spiritual path as we begin to search for the hidden gnosis (sacred knowing) of mind, heart and soul that is emerging within us.” Fr. Thomas Keating from ‘Reflections on the Unknowable’
Susan Komis and Jim McElroy will facilitate this hybrid retreat by sharing their experience and insights of practicing and teaching Centering Prayer, The Welcoming Prayer, and the Human Condition. Susan will offer a reflection on Fr. Thomas’s most fundamental teaching, The Human Condition, and then offer her thoughts on the stages of spiritual growth from ‘The Awakening’ to “The Sage”.
Jim will provide an in-depth teaching of The Welcoming Prayer as the companion practice to Centering Prayer and as a method designed to facilitate the dismantling of the false self-system and living from present moment awareness.
The Welcoming Prayer is a method of consenting to God’s presence and action in our physical and emotional reactions to events and situations in daily life. It deepens our relationship with God and allows to more fully live in the eternal now. The Welcoming Prayer helps to dismantle the emotional programs and heal the wounds of a lifetime by addressing them where they are stored—in the body.
Retreat begins Friday evening, April 9th at 6:00pm and ends Sunday, April 11th at noon.
Registration Online at www.centeringprayerstl.org. Cost $50.
Please consider being a sponsor with a donation of $80 to further the mission of COSTL. Scholarships are available contact Bill Schwindt, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
If you wish to register by mail please send your registration to:
COSTL C/O Grace Episcopal Church
514 E. Argonne Drive
Kirkwood, MO 63122
Facilitators:
Susan Komis is a former Director of Chapter Programs & Services for the Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. Organization. She began as a volunteer for the St. Louis, MO Chapter in 1990 and was appointed Coordinator for the St. Louis region in 1994 and served in that capacity through 1999. Susan was then employed by Contemplative Outreach and served CO spiritual network for 20 years as a faculty member, member of the Board of Directors, and commissioned presenter. Her primary role was supporting the leadership of CO chapters by developing and offering formations, retreats, spiritual enrichment and organizational support until she retired at the end of 2016.
Susan continues to offer onsite programs on contemplative spirituality and leads Centering Prayer and themed retreats. She is a certified Pastoral Minister and has served in Adult Faith Development, spiritual directions and inter-spiritual dialogue.
Jim McElroy has been practicing Centering Prayer since 1996 and has been a commissioned presenter since 2002.Jim has been on the leadership team of 12-Step Outreach since its formation in 2005 and is especially interested in teaching contemplative practices to the recovery community. He is a former coordinator of Contemplative Outreach of St. Louis and is on the Welcoming Prayer Faculty.He is also grateful to be a member of the Living Flame faculty team.