Objectives:

1.       Candidates will progress on their spiritual journey through a careful examination of their attitude and relationship with God, by gaining self-knowledge, and by coming to know Who God really is.

2.      If they have not already, candidates will begin the lifelong school of prayer.

3.      Candidates will competently describe the importance and different types (e.g., liturgical, discursive meditation, contemplation) of prayer in the life of a Christian especially a Deacon as expressed in Sacred Tradition and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

4.      Candidates will be able to compare and contrast the types of spiritual light or expression (e.g., active, contemplative) in the lives of the various Christian saints (e.g., Sts. Theresa of the Child Jesus, Ignatius of Loyola), as taught and lived in the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ.

5.      Candidates will come to understand liturgy as a spiritual experience and understand the different, spiritual emphases expressed in the Liturgy of the Mass throughout the Liturgical Year.

6.      Candidates will come to know and experience Christian contemplative (or centering) prayer.

7.     Candidates will understand the signs and general pattern of growth in the spiritual life as expressed by the teachings ofSts. Theresa of Jesus (the seven spiritual mansions) and John of the Cross (the dark nights of sense and spirit).

8.     Candidates will come to know the elements of the life and teaching of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

9.      Candidates will come to understand the importance of spiritual direction and how to regularly engage a spiritual director and serve as one, if called by God.

10.   Candidates will be offered the opportunity to participate in the 19 ^th Annotation (the retreat in daily life) of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

 

 

Background texts:

1.      CCC =        Cathecism of the Catholic Church

2.      FW =          Fire Within,Fr. Thomas Dubay