WEEKLY ONLINE
JUNE 8 - JULY 18

Adult Contemplative camp is a tradition of over 30+ years. This year's will be extended and entirely virtual! Make time to quiet your mind and soothe your heart.  Join an interfaith leadership team of contemplatives who will lead participants in a multi-week inner journey.

Here are the details:
Mondays 7:30-9:00 pm Reflections  Thursdays 7:30-9:00 pm Feedback


Week 1  --June 8
     THE POINT OF CONTEMPLATING IS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THE EXPANSIVE SELF.
      a. Our egos keep us from seeing the spiritual world around us, and within us.
      b. The spirituality of mindfulness practice helps us just to look at thoughts, then let them go.
      c. We can use all our senses to shape our interior dialogue.
      d.  Contemplative practice has important effects:
           1. Just watching our thoughts as an observer slowly makes them less important.
           2. With practice, we can observe without reacting to them or to external events.
      e.  The practice:  Choose one sense, or one motion—walking, singing, tai chi as a “mantra”

Week 2 June 15-- THE PRAYER AND PRACTICE—We keep “showing up” to get beyond our egos.
      a.  Praying is one way of directing our minds away from the “blizzard” of continual thoughts.
      b.  There are many ways to pray: with words, with rituals, with music, with silence.
      c.  Introduction to silent prayer—Contemplation & Meditation—See The Mystic Core.
      d. The practice: Choose ways to pray—cataphatic (with words) or apophatic (inner stillness).

Week 3—June 22  FINDING THE SPIRITUAL FOCUS—Ways to make the practice work FOR YOU.
       a. The spiritual focus, or anchor, will change for different times and circumstances.
       b. The most consistent anchor is the breath, deliberate and slow, and conscious.
       c.  Auditory and visual anchors are common—sacred words, chants, icons, beauty…
       d. The practice:  Choose two or three anchors to see what works for you.

 Week 4  THE SPIRITUAL PATH…MEANS A LIFETIME OF LEARNING
       a.  With spiritual practice, we become less and less obsessed with everyday worries.
       b.  It gives us inner strength to live with inherent uncertainties, like COVID 19.
       c.  It gets us in touch with complexities without judging them--Paradoxical Living.
       d. The practice:  Look directly at a worry, then focus on an expansive experience.


THE INTENSIVE EXPLORATION:  JULY 12-18, Longer times of Contemplation.
  AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, WE WILL FOLLOW THE PATTERN OF THE DAY AS WAS THE CUSTOM AT CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE CAMP.  WHEREVER WE DO OUR PRACTICE, WE WILL HAVE MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO DEEPEN THE CONVERSATION, AND TO ENJOY A GOOD BOOK.    
  OUR INTENT IS TO EXPAND THE ABOVE REFLECTIONS TO FIT THE USUAL PATTERN OF CONTEMPLATIVE DAYS WITH:  LECTIO,  MOVEMENT, KOINANIA, MUSIC, THE GREAT SILENCE.
THE EXACT SHAPE OF THIS WILL BE DETERMINED IN JUNE, BUT THE DATES MAY BE JULY 12-18.I