This methodology is narrative driven, focusing on lived experiences of parishioners during the Advent Retreat. The project was deepening relationship with God engaging the process of Spiritual Exercises praying scripture with imagination, journaling dialogue with the risen Christ, sharing experiences born out of that spiritual practice, and giving feedback in written and spoken form. Volunteers came out of curiosity, out of friendship with the researcher/priest, and with desire to take their spirituality to a deeper level. In the end there was expressed hope that there be more experiential heart centered spirituality in faith formation programs of St. Luke’s.
A bracketed presupposition of this dissertation project is Karl Rahner’s belief (shared by the researcher/priest) that Christians in the future will be mystics in love with God or they will not exist at all. A practical presupposition is that research by this researcher/priest as a project leader from St. Luke’s might reflect limited, even skewed, critical response from volunteers for the project."
-- Abstract.
]]>This methodology is narrative driven, focusing on lived experiences of parishioners during the Advent Retreat. The project was deepening relationship with God engaging the process of Spiritual Exercises praying scripture with imagination, journaling dialogue with the risen Christ, sharing experiences born out of that spiritual practice, and giving feedback in written and spoken form. Volunteers came out of curiosity, out of friendship with the researcher/priest, and with desire to take their spirituality to a deeper level. In the end there was expressed hope that there be more experiential heart centered spirituality in faith formation programs of St. Luke’s.
A bracketed presupposition of this dissertation project is Karl Rahner’s belief (shared by the researcher/priest) that Christians in the future will be mystics in love with God or they will not exist at all. A practical presupposition is that research by this researcher/priest as a project leader from St. Luke’s might reflect limited, even skewed, critical response from volunteers for the project."
-- Abstract.