Meditation: Mastering the Fundamentals – A Webinar with Fr. John Bartunek

Dear Friends – I am pleased to announce that Fr. John Bartunek, author of The Better Part, will provide us with insights into the fundamentals of Christian meditation. In this Webinar he will cover the basic concepts that keep us focused in mental prayer. This webinar is scheduled for Saturday March 10th from 10:30am Central Time to 11:30am Central Time.

Some of the questions he will answer will be:

• What are the essential elements of mental prayer?
• What is the difference between mental and vocal prayer?
• What is the basic structure of a time of mental prayer?
• What is the relationship between meditation and contemplation in the context of mental prayer?

REGISTER FOR MASTERING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDITATION

Winning the Battle of Prayer Seminar for Women – Santa Clara, California

Dear Friends,

You need a retreat!

I am excited to let you know about a rare opportunity to engage with Father John in person on the topic of prayer. Father John will be at the Our Lady of Santa Clara Retreat Center in Santa Clara, California from Friday, May 4th to Sunday, May 6th, 2012. The women’s weekend prayer seminar starts at 5:00PM on Friday and ends after lunch on Sunday. The retreat center is located about 45 minutes south of the San Francisco Airport. Here’s a bit more:

Winning the Battle of Prayer: A Seminar Built around The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer. This seminar on prayer will include talks on the different types of prayer, obstacles to prayer, and prayer from God’s perspective. There will also be a question and answer session with Father Bartunek. Confession and Spiritual Direction will be available and daily Mass will be offered.

We wanted to let you know as soon as we could so that you won’t miss out. Father John is a gifted communicator and retreat master. Don’t miss this opportunity. Availability is limited. To learn more and to register, click here.

For any questions or more information, send an email to info@ourladyofsantaclara.org.

Pax Christi,

Dan

Feeding the Spiritually Hungry Around the World – Webinar Update

Dear Friends,

For those who have been with us for a while, you know that we have readers from more than 190 countries around the world. Here’s a recent snapshot of our visitors – all the little red dots…

It has been our great privilege and honor to serve all of you and in a special way through our recent webinars on the topic of Navigating the Interior Life. Today we had webinar attendees from all over the U.S. and Canada, United Kingdom, Tanzania, India, Rwanda, Australia, Finland, Philippines, Netherlands, and China (forgive me if I missed your country).

It has truly been an invigorating experience. The most delightful aspect has been the Question and Answer time at the end of each session. Today, we had more than 60 participants continue with the Q & A for more than an hour. Essentially these times have become a kind of group spiritual direction session.

If you have been among the attendees in any of our sessions, please provide your feedback at the end of this post so that we can continue to improve our service to you.

• What was most helpful to you?
• Do you feel better equipped to deepen your relationship with God and if so, how?

We consider it a profound privileged to serve the King of Kings and those who love Him.

PS: Thus far, the feedback has been 100% positive. It is our prayer that we will continue to be able to provide this important blessing to the people of God. If you can support us in doing so, we would be grateful. Monthly gifts of any size are particularly helpful. If you can’t help financially, please consider offering a decade of the Rosary on our behalf for provision of funds necessary to expand this important work. Our long term goal is to start a school of the interior life that provides both local and internet based formation.

Prayer and the Interior Life Webinar – Announcement, Registration, and FAQ

Dear Friends,

Happy Advent to you all! The class is finally ready! Below you will find a link to register for our inaugural Prayer and the Interior Life class. We have scheduled two Saturday sessions at 10:00 AM Central starting on January 7th and will schedule more once we evaluate the best approach after the first two sessions. We will have enough room for 100 participants and more than 200 have expressed interest so sign up ASAP in order to avoid missing the opportunity. For those who have expressed interest in the past, I have done my best to include you in updates if you initially indicated your interest. Even so, our capacity is very limited and we may have missed you during our juggling of all the necessary elements to bring this and all we do together for you. Also, there is a list of Frequently Asked Questions provided below.

My prayer is that it will be a blessing to you and provide us with good feedback regarding how we might improve and continue to provide this service to those seeking to deepen their relationship with Christ and love for His Church.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED – SESSION FULL – WE WILL KEEP YOU UPDATED ON FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have not already done so, it is a requirement for attendance to fill out this anonymous Questionnaire on the spiritual life HERE.

For those who have provided the financial assistance necessary to launch this project THANK YOU!

For those who cannot participate in some manner, please pray for all involved.

Pax Christi,

Dan

Frequently Asked Questions

What topics on prayer will the group be instructed on?

• Motivations to Prayer and the Interior Life
• Self-Knowedge and Reflection
• Navigating the Interior Life – The Three Phases of the Spiritual Growth
• More topics will be determined based on information from the first two classes

How long will the sessions last?

• Approximately 45 minutes of instruction and approximately 15 minutes of questions and answers.

Will this class reflect any particular spirituality of the Church?

• Yes – when I am leading I will always lean more towards a Carmelite perspective but my grounding in prayer and the spiritual life runs down the center of traditional Catholic spirituality that reflects the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the teachings of the spiritual doctors of the Church.

How many meetings will there be?

• We have scheduled two Saturday sessions on January 7th and 14th and and more will be scheduled after we assess the areas of improvement from the first effort.

Will there be a fee for this program?

• There will be no fee for the first participants. We have not determined an approach yet for future participants. Our desire is to provide this for free to all who desire it. That said, our funds are limited and we depend upon donors so we will need to gauge how much support we can raise and thereby how much we can help.

Also, what if I miss a session?  Can it be repeated or can I find it on-line at a later date?

• I don’t know how this will work yet.

Will there be “homework”, papers, etc.?

• Not initially – if there is it will not be mandatory but your time in purgatory may increase if there is and you fail to do it.

Online Prayer Class Update

Dear Friends,

As you can see by the thermometer below, you provided the necessary funds to purchase the webinar software! For all those who were able to give, thank you for your generosity! For those who regularly pray for us or send people to this web site, many thanks to you as well!

Over the next few weeks we anticipate receiving the software and getting the computer setup and ready. We also have a short survey prepared for the pilot participants which will be sent out by the end of this week. Once we get those back we will finalize the course content, set the first dates, and get moving. We have also determined that the sessions will be one hour long (approximately 45 minutes of content followed by approximately 15 minutes of question and answer time) on Saturdays before 12:00pm Central Time.

Because our resources are very limited, we covet your prayers. In a normal situation we would only need what is sometimes an insignificant amount of dedicated time or funds to overcome any obstacle. With this kind of effort sometimes small obstacles can take more time to overcome than we would like. Please pray for wisdom and opportunity to serve you well!