The LCSD Book Club is returning this autumn with a book pick that will help us engage what is often cited as one of the earliest examples of spiritual direction: the Desert Mothers and Fathers. Together, we will read Lisa Colón Delay’s wonderful book, published earlier this year: The Way of the Desert Elders: How the Wisdom of Ancient Christians Sustains Us Today.

Join Hope Stockman for three 60 minute sessions to experience integrating the body into your own prayer and accompaniment. During these sessions, we will explore somatics in spiritual direction and be invited to engage in a guided breath and body prayer practice.

In the Bible spiritual growth is likened to the natural development processes of plants, and the part played by gardeners, whether human or divine. Growing in God’s Life will explore four recurring movements of this growth:

• Becoming rooted and grounded in God

• Emerging into being in response to God’s invitation

• Struggling towards abundance through resistance

• Bearing fruit and being willing to fall

These four are recurring movements, not stages.

Growth takes place gradually through a cooperative relationship between the Holy Spirit and our human spirit, rather than by self-made achievement.

Join Hope Stockman for three 60 minute sessions to experience integrating the body into your own prayer and accompaniment. During these sessions, we will explore somatics in spiritual direction and be invited to engage in a guided breath and body prayer practice.

This seminar explores the biblical and theological foundations for a richer, more expansive understanding of the Divine - one that makes room for feminine as well as masculine imagery for God. Together, we'll consider how this broader vision can deepen our own formation and strengthen our capacity to accompany others with wisdom, sensitivity, and compassion.

Traditionally, Lent invites us to enter the wilderness, confront our mortality, and sit with our brokenness. This year, we will navigate that wilderness using the framework of psychotherapist Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Grief. Weller reminds us that sorrow is not a disease to be cured, but a vital apprenticeship that expands our capacity for joy.

Do you want to explore how Group Spiritual Direction could support your calling and practice as a spiritual director?

Join us for an engaging, interactive workshop facilitated by Kathy Gust. Group Spiritual Direction offers a profound way for small groups to support one another’s spiritual growth, increase awareness of God’s presence, and listen more deeply to God, themselves, and each other.

This workshop offers participants the opportunity to reflect on the benefits and essentials of Group Spiritual Direction, explore different ways it can be offered, and discern how it might fit their ministry or practice at this time. Through this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Name ways Group Spiritual Direction can support spiritual growth and deepen awareness of God’s presence for individuals and communities

• Recognise the essentials of Group Spiritual Direction Describe different ways Group Spiritual Direction can be offered

• Begin to discern how Group Spiritual Direction fits their own calling and context.

Dementia is part of every community, and as Spiritual Directors, we are increasingly likely to encounter its impact; whether walking alongside someone with advancing dementia, or accompanying family, friends, or caregivers as they navigate shifting realities. This workshop invites us to explore the changing patterns dementia brings, both in the lives of those we accompany and in our own understanding of presence and connection.

Julian of Norwich was a soul friend to many, deeply rooted in God, prayer and the community around her in medieval Norwich. In the Revelations of Divine Love, as well as in what we know of her life and prayer, she offers rich wisdom for the ministry of spiritual direction. Through teaching, conversation and times of silence, this session will explore what Julian might have to offer us as spiritual companions today.

How do we become more of an authentic welcoming presence?

Hospitality is at the heart of Spiritual Direction. We are offered unceasing hospitality by the Great Accompanier, and we attempt to extend this to all we encounter, individuals and groups. Jesus is our exemplar and the gospels tell us that because of the hospitality he gave, people and communities were transformed, the impact of which rippled across two centuries to now.