Courage for the Dark Nights and Deserts
Workshop # 9
Laura Melly
Faith journeys include periods of fear, dryness, reproof, and doubt. Courage and understanding help. This workshop is designed to build up both our collective courage and our Quaker understanding.
Percentage of time:
Worship/worship-sharing 40; Lecture 10; Discussion 20; Experiential 30
(PT)
Open to all
Full Description
Objectives:
- First, to be courageously faithful, individually and corporately.
- Second, to foster our understanding of how faith journeys often include periods of fear, dryness, reproof, and doubt.
- Third, to worship, listen, share, and in other ways embrace our experiences of the dark night, desert, desolation, tradegy, or refiner’s fire.
- Fourth, to consider how our meetings may also experience such periods corporately and need similar nurture and courage.
Format of Workshop Sessions:
The typical morning will start with quiet settling and opening worship (up to 10 minutes). There will be a relevant quote, queries and "the day’s agenda" on the classroom's "blackboard." After I introduce the day’s topic, we will engage as a whole group, smaller groupings, or individually with specific spiritual exercises or directed activities. Personal reflection/journaling after the activity will help us to deepen our appreciation for how this may apply to our own experience. After the mid-morning break, we will learn from each other in large group discussion or worship sharing using the day’s queries. We will close with a time of worship (usually 30 minutes).
Participants will be invited frequently to share their reflections -- with all, or in a small group, or to a prayer partner. Participants are always free to sit out an exercise or not to respond to a particular query. Given the diversity of our backgrounds experientially and theologically, we will need to be conscientious, trusting, and courageous.
Reading:
No reading in advance is required. Dark Night Journey by Sandra Cronk as well as books by Thomas Keating or Gerald May are recommended. Brief passages from Quaker journals and a variety of other sources will be handed out during the workshop as needed.
