Sunday Morning Freewrite

I have my online timer on for 20 minutes. Hey, the freewrites are usually 15. What was I thinking?  Oh well, I don't mind.

I just had a holy moment. It was one of those nods from God times. "Carol, this is a good thing you are doing right now. I am right there with you."

I am writing the "Sacred Listening" to our "Sacred Histories" part of the spiritual direction training I am leading starting September 19, 2025. I love it. This is part of everyone telling their stories, and what it is and is not about.

It is about truly listening and not thinking about what you are going to say at the end. What advice you are going to give. It is about listening and at the end saying, "I noticed" this thread of meaning, that particular phrase, about saying, "Tell me more about that part of your story." It is about empathy and compassion and not about denying emotions or saying, "I had the exact thing happen to me." No, you did not - each person's story is so unique and wonderful. I love hearing people's stories and asking questions that help a person find meaning in their experiences. So it is a fun thing to write, although time-consuming. I spent from 5 am to 5:45 pm yesterday writing the syllabus and the supporting documents that go along with the training for the first module that is 10 months away! 

The good news is that I loved every single minute of the writing. Also, the good news is I completed the application, the letter to a potential directee, the questionnaire for the person they want to be their director, instructions for their "Sacred Collage," overview of the two years, final book list, Excel sheet for keeping a record of all their submissions, and the Contemplative Reflection Form and Dialogue. Whew! It was a big day, but when I love what I am doing, it is not work. 

The only part of the syllabus I have left is about giving our Sacred Histories, listening to each other's histories, "finding" directees, their first meetings with their two directees and their director, and how to fill out the Contemplative Reflection Form. 

I am not even nervous about this. I am just praying for the right three to six people to come along. I say three to six because we need one to two sets of triad listening groups. We will do this for all five modules of the first year. I was so nervous about doing this when I was in my "Protestant" training (I had already been mentored by a Catholic nun before joining this one.) But I loved the triads by the end. I just had a memory of one of the guys who asked such good questions, but he did not continue with the training for the second year. He had a lot of stuff going on in his life and many health problems. Poor guy. He had such potential. 

All that said, I also had such a good time in my meditation in the Exercises yesterday too. I did the "Call of the King" Contemplation and so good. God continues to confirm my calling, and I even put the picture I drew from the second time I went through the Call of the King Contemplation in 2018. 

I wonder how God spoke during the first time. I typed all of that online, and I downloaded the notes from that time, but I don't know where it is on my computer. I will have to search. I also learned that the Review of Prayer I put in my manual is NOT from Jeremiah in the OMS but I found my notes from that second time, and it said, "The Ignatian Adventure, p. 159." The exact same questions are in there, and at one time, I knew that. So I corrected the credit I gave in my manual to Jeremiah and gave it to Kevin O'Brien, SJ instead! LOL!

Well, I think my time is almost up. I am going to walk around (maybe even walk in the dark outside because it is supposed to rain once the sun comes up) and finish up this syllabus! 

Ta Ta for Now. I think the timer is almost going to go off in 50 seconds. 

Fullfilled Freewrite Fifteen

Deep down, I have peace and will write for a fifteen-minute freewrite. I have been doing them on this blog for several years. Freewrites were introduced to me by my good friend, Julie Bogart, who is the head of Bravewriter. You can write or type non-stop for fifteen minutes with anything that is in your head. It is helpful for me.

It is helpful especially as I am coming off two very FULLfilling days of training FOURTEEN soon-to-be spiritual directors. I am shadowing my trainers who are with Sustainable Faith. Although I will be Sustainable Faith trained, I will launch out on my own with a whole new curriculum that combines what I have learned from over 40 years of contemplative practices, influences from spiritual formation with Renovare Spiritual Formation Groups (that I started here in the early 90s and grew from there), Renovare Institute, and also my newer learnings on Attachment theory through Curt Thompson and Life Model Works (2 classes and numerous books). I will also teach from my training in the Enneagram (different from how Sustainable Faith covers it). I will also include the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius using the manual I wrote.  Oh, and there will be more on Belovedness and hearing God from Jamie and Donna. :) 

I love creating this curriculum, and God is speaking to me about letting go of some things I wanted to be included in, but as Marie says in The Sound of Music, "Reverend Mother always says, 'When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.'" And my window is outside what has been done before. God is doing a new thing, and I am so excited to fly out that window into the wide-open blue and beautiful skies! YAY!

I also want to empower people worldwide to train spiritual directors. They can do it under my umbrella so they can be recognized by ESDA, but I would love to see training in third-world countries for people who cannot afford the steep (and getting steeper) prices of spiritual direction training. 

Back to the training, I feel like I failed in one supervision session. Not failed, but I ran out of time to supervise, but that was partly because of the person I was supervising. I wanted to get to other things, but many questions caused me not to wrap things up. I also was not in charge of moving things along because my computer froze. So the person I was supervising had to show it on their screen. It went OK though.

I am a bit peopled out though. Really and truly. I have a doctor's appointment at 1:45. Then, I will rest until 6 pm when one of my directees comes over. Tomorrow, I just have to teach one class, maybe meet with a friend from out of town on campus, and the 40th FSF Banquet. 

Then, it will be time for a well-deserved Sabbath for me. I really want to rest. But I also want to put together this curriculum. This is going to be so much fun. 

Lord, help me and lead me to be creative with all of this. I have 1 1/2 minutes left. Then, I will do some writing until I go to the doctor. I am so excited Lord. I am pretty fulfilled! 

YAY for FLYING FREE. 

Fifteen Minute Freewrite

It is time for a freewrite. It is Tuesday. Today is a light day. I'm meeting with someone at 8 am. Then I have my Spiritual Accompaniment of Children Class at 5-7. I am looking at the schedule for this week, I met with a 30-something yesterday afternoon, and I have three 30-somethings as my next three directees. I love it. There is something vibrant and wonderful about this age. They are in such change in their lives. One is a young mom, another is a single who just returned from overseas, another single has just made a decision to go to a specific place to join specific people (our friends, in fact), and another is a young married who is just starting the process of moving overseas. 

This excites me.

And I am facilitating my twice monthly 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius group. They are one 30-something, two 40-somethings, and a 60-something. I love the meditations this week, and I kept singing a John Thurlow song called "Mighty Hand" that combines words and concepts from three of the passages we are meditating on this week in Luke 15 ("You put the ring upon my finger. You put the robe upon my back. You throw your arms around me and say, "You are My son, My daughter, don't forget"), Psalm 136 ("With a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm"), and John 8 ("Where are your accusers now?". It throws in Romans 8 (a passage that has a history for me) that we meditated on in Week 3 ("There is therefore now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"). The second song combines Romans 8 and Ephesians 3 which we meditated on last week! I love this.

So, I have been listening to the worship set above and loving it. I love how God leads me down little roads every morning. While I have a plan about what I am meditating on, God takes it from there. I love my mornings with Him, and I have until 8 am this morning. 

Yesterday morning, I had an earlier start, leading an Order of the Mustard Seed Prayer Watch at 5:30 am. There were 10 people there, and I subbed for Ciara, and she had a PowerPoint all made up for me. It was a visio divina, and I had looked at that picture for days, and I wondered what people would get out of it, especially me, and I got so much out of it! 

I will write about that someday because I think my Freewrite Fifteen Minutes is almost done. Yep. 55 seconds, and I am moving on.

Yesterday, I also spent time writing out a job description for my Spiritual Direction Training Intern. I want an intern every time! B in South Asia is discerning whether it would be a good thing for her. 

BYE! 

Aposto-monasticism

Order of the Mustard Seed · Season 3 Episode 12: Joe Steinke, Jill Weber and Pete Greig – Apostomonasticism