Our Summer School of Formation is designed to help our community lean into deeper rhythms of prayer, study, rest, and play.
We're inviting you to consider signing up for one or more of these courses as we continue to be on the hunt for a more permanant location for our All-Church gatherings.
We will continue to meet for worship, community formation groups, and lectio Sunday. Our All-Church Teaching will resume in September of 2022.
This five-session class will dive deeper into one of the six core practices at The Abbey: formational healing. We all have been deeply formed by our experiences. Trauma and otherwise soul-crushing experiences have malformed us, often hindering us from being the people we want to be and are called to be as followers of Jesus.
This 12-week journey through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola is designed to be a an introduction to Ignatian meditation and contemplation of the scriptures. Anyone who has a sincere desire to know and love Jesus more, cultivate a deeper understanding of the work that God is doing in them, and a greater willingness to nurture that work will benefit greatly from this journey. Participants will be expected to set aside a minimum of 30 minutes each day (preferably in the morning) to engage the exercises and 10 minutes each evening to pray an examen. Participants will also meet once week for group spiritual direction.
This summer school course is largely self-directed, with a few specific tasks to complete at specific times. It is designed to engage you more robustly in justice/mercy work through the project of Sanctuary Night, supported with assignments to think deeply and theologically about the work being done. Those interested will meet with Hannah Estabrook, Pastor at The Abbey and Sanctuary Night executive director– once at the beginning of the summer (individually), and once at the end (as a group)
Description:
We all experience ups and downs in our life with God. There are times when God feels close and we are filled with desire and energy for the spiritual life. There are also times when we feel like the bottom has dropped out, like God is far away or completely absent, and we are entirely lacking in energy to pursue the things of God. This ebb and flow is entirely normal and not necessarily an indication that we are doing anything wrong. If we know how to respond in these ups and downs they can be a rich source of spiritual growth.