The Contemplative Journey

As your guide on The Contemplative Journey, I’ll lead you through a quick but in-depth look at the path of interior silence, solitude, and stillness practiced by Christian mystics through the ages. Our journey together will provide a bird's-eye view of the path to help you orient yourself with the lay of the land, the guideposts, and the potential pitfalls along the way. You will learn the rich history, philosophy and theology behind contemplation to give you an understanding of how the tradition has a firm rooting in Christianity.

We’ll also develop multiple practices that engender a sense of friendship, intimacy, and union with God, stepping into the mystical or experiential nature of faith. We’ll enjoy the physical, psychological and spiritual benefits of contemplative prayer and meditation as fruits of the spirit that flow from our inner life in God, to our outer life in the world.

Lección 1: A Bird's-Eye View

On the first day, we will explore the roots of the contemplative path, starting with examples from Jesus and other figures in scripture, and continuing to the desert fathers and mothers, and finally to modern-day mystics. We’ll spread out our map of the contemplative path, to see the larger patterns that seem to recur for spiritual seekers throughout history. You’ll be introduced to a short and sweet prayer that you can start immediately, and will carry you throughout the course and into your daily life.

Lección 2: Purgation: Preparing The Heart

Now, we’ll get into the details of the contemplative path as it was conceived by the desert fathers and mothers in the early centuries of Christianity. These ascetics devoted their entire lives to the surrender to God, and saw three main phases of the journey that stood out – Purgation, Illumination, and Union.

In this session, we’ll look at the process of Purgation and asceticism. You’ll see exactly what the spiritual greats like Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Diadychos, and John Cassian wanted to convey by their lived teaching, as well as how to recognize potential traps and pitfalls of the spiritual journey.

Lección 3: Illumination: Stepping Out Of The Dark

In this module, we’ll get familiar with the second leg of the Contemplative Journey, the phase of Illumination, or as I like to call it – stepping out of the dark. This illumination by the Divine light of contemplation is a pure gift, and is not something we can achieve. However, I will share what methods can help facilitate this seeing and remove obstacles to our sight.

Lección 4: Union: The Divine Bridal Chamber

This is the final stage of the traditional, monastic three-part contemplative journey. It’s what I like to call the Divine Bridal Chamber, and in this teaching, we’ll explore what it means to be in union with God and subsequently with all life. We’ll see what it means to integrate both action and contemplation by drawing from the deep well of Christian mysticism, as well as the flowering of the perennial philosophy through the ages.

Lección 5: Modern Mystics & Contemporary Contemplation

On our last day, we’ll refresh what we’ve learned so far, and begin to explore how to integrate it into our modern lifestyle. We don’t need to live in an Egyptian desert, or in a cave in the Himalayas to recognize and participate in the reality of spirit!

So how do we maintain authenticity and dedication to the Divine amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday existence? How do we abide with and as our true self in the chaos of so many false selves? Let’s find out together.

Reviews

I listen to this course over and over. Probably with more repetitions of cycling from beginning to end then any prior course. Each cycle brings forth a new experience each time.

Informative, interesting and I love the meditations at each session end. I will listen again. Thank you, Grace & Peace to you 🙏

Wonderful, thank you so much for this.

Phenomenal course. Very well thought out.

A beautifully constructed discursive and felt journey that will enlighten all seekers of the divine Ground. This course has laid a new foundation for my contemplative practice.

Thank you very much for this excellent and succinct presentation of eternal truth. Stat crux dum volvitur orbis!

Absolutely beautiful . I’m going to be listening again and again.
thank you very much for this beautiful journey 🙏🏻

Beautiful, educational and so inspiring. I thank you 🙏

Thank you so much, your presentation of this topic was so clear and moving. Thank you 🙏🏼

Very dense, packed with stacks of wisdom. This course helped me a lot and it also humbled me, knowing that I'm on the right track. With so much books to read about the 'subject', this course gave me good pointers in the right direction.

A superbly put together course. Thank you so much. Each module is packed with information and beautifully presented - filled with so much that re-listening is recommended! Module 5 is a profound and hugely relevant summary of contemplative spirituality. Will re-listen several times.

Whoa. That was... incredible. So deep and thought provoking. I highly recommend to anyone seeking to better understand their relationship to the Divine.

Outrageously good course! Would highly recommend it.

Great course with a lot of useful information. Really helped open up to concepts that I wasn’t aware of. Thank you 🙏

Words fail me to describe the impact of this course on me. I’m grateful for the blessing and peace which I’ve received. Thank you, Jory.

WoW! Beyond words - lovely course - thank you and god bless 🙏🏻

Excellent. This is the path of a Contemplative. ❤️❤️❤️

I loved the course and will listen again. I've started to study the Christian mystics and this is a great introduction to the contemplative life. My only complaint is that it's too short! Thank you.

This is an exceptionally good brief course on the spiritual life, which embraces both Western and Eastern approaches and yet manages to retain a Christian ethos overall - not an easy task! Thank you for the experience, which I believe I will be returning to, since the lessons are deep in inverse proportion to their brevity.

Thankyou all the way from Brasil. I had been searching foi this for a long time.