In the second half of 2021, CCD Wollongong hosted a series of Prayer Seminars facilitated by guest presenters. With topics such as Lectio Divina, Prayer Journaling, and An Evening with Mary, Prayer Seminars led participants in a rich representation of the many spiritualities within our Catholic tradition.
Below you will find seminar notes (where made available) and an opportunity to provide your much valued feedback for each seminar you have attended.
If you would like to contact us directly, please email support@ccdwollongong.com
CENTERING PRAYER (RACHEL FLUERANT MGL)
Come and discover the beautiful practice of interior silence using a sacred word to open you up to simply rest in the presence of God.
PRAYING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT (PETER GILMORE)
You are invited to rediscover one of the most ancient prayers of the Church - Come Holy Spirit - and see how God can nourish, heal, enliven, and transform us. We can experience this by consciously including the Holy Spirit through Scripture, hymns of worship, listening and contemplation.
THE EXAMEN (FRANCES TILY)
The Examen prayer seminar offers participants a taste of Ignatian spirituality through the experience of praying the awareness examen – a practical means to reflect on one’s day and discover how God is at work and inviting me into deeper intimacy and life.
LECTIO DIVINA (SR SUE BARKER SGS)
A way of listening to God speak to me in my everyday life through the Scriptures.
A BENEDICTINE PATH TO PRAYER (SR MAGDALEN MATHER OSB)
We believe the divine presence is everywhere‘(Rule of St Benedict Ch. 19.1). This is the foundation upon which Benedictine prayer is built, the milieu in which Benedictine prayer in its many forms is prayed, and is the atmosphere that Benedictine spirituality breathes. The living of Benedictine spirituality, through prayer and contemplation, unfolds and grows belief about divine presence into awakening in the presence of God as the reality of everyday life. Tonight we explore this contemplative way of living prayer.
PRAYER JOURNALING (SR KERRY GARDINER rsJ)
Exploring how we can use the simple process of journaling to pray.
PRAYER WITH ST TERESA OF AVILA (Fr Aloysius Rego OCD)
PRAYING THROUGH CREATIVE LISTENING (KATHERINE KINGLSEY MGL)
Come with an open heart and spend some time conversing with God through creativity. Creativity is a place of meeting with our Creator, and can be a powerful place of prayer encounter and discovery. No creative skills are needed, just an open mind to hearing God speak.
ENGAGING WITH JESUS IN THE GOSPELS (SR MONICA BARLOW RSJ)
We will engage with Jesus using the time honoured method of Ignatian spirituality. Following Jesus’ invitation in John’s Gospel “Come and see” (1:39), you take a passage from the Gospels and immerse yourself in it imaginatively using all your senses, keeping your attention fixed on Jesus.
THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH (SETH HARSH)
The Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of the whole People of God. In it, Christ himself “continues his priestly work through his Church.” His members participate according to their own place in the Church and the circumstances of their lives. The celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours demands not only harmonizing the voice with the praying heart, but also a deeper “understanding of the liturgy and of the Bible, especially of the Psalms.”
REDISCOVERING THE POWER OF THE ROSARY (PAUL ELARDE)
The Rosary for some, may seem to be a repetitious and an old-fashioned style of prayer. However, in every Church approved Marian apparition for the last 150 years, Mary has called us to pray the Rosary. Paul would say that it is THE prayer of our times! Paul and his wife Juliana will lead us in saying the Rosary after Paul helps us to overcome common problems in saying the Rosary well.