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Blessed Lent 2017

For more information please see leaflet here

Course: The Gospel of St. John and Spiritual Life

February - May 2017

What content is covered?

This Course addresses St John's Gospel “Spiritual Theology”. In the early centuries, St John was the only one named by the Church: “The Theologian” (or “The Divine”); this is because of the depth and height of his contemplation and experience of God. When we study the Sources of Spiritual Theology, we consider St John's writings amongst the most important ones. Leaning on the results of modern exegesis and biblical theology, we will go deeper, to perceive and receive the spiritual and practical teachings of St John's Gospel.

The Course is composed of the following topics, though some might overlap :

1- Presentation of the notion of “Spiritual Biblical Theology”, its relationship with modern “Exegesis” and “Biblical Theology”.

2- Introduction to the person of St John: his life (especially the latter part) and his mission.

3- Analyzing the cornerstone of the Gospel of St John: the Wedding at Cana.

4- St John and the Transfiguration of the Lord.

5- Question of “Holy Saturday” in St John. Re-reading Genesis: “Woman”.

6- Structure and goal of the Gospel of St John: the 6 Signs and the main Sign.

7- The First Sign: the New Wine.

8- The Second Sign: healing the son of the centurion.

9- The Third Sign: the paralytic.

10- The Fourth Sign: multiplying the bread.

11- Fifth Sign: the man blind from birth.

12- Sixth Sign: the resurrection of Lazarus.

13- The Sign par excellence: the Crucified.

14- Reading the Resurrection accounts.

15- The Second level of reading of St John's Gospel.

Who might find the course useful?

The course is for all of us who would like to deepen their reading and understanding of scripture. Especially with regards to their growth in spiritual life.

As with all School of Mary courses, the Patroness of the Course is Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus. 

Dates and times of the Course are:

Wednesdays 22 Feb., 1, 8 ,15, 22 and 29 March, 26 April and 3, 10 and 17 May 2017 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Tea and coffee are provided.

Where the course takes place?

The course will take place at St Mary of the Angels, Moorhouse Road, Bayswater, London, W2 5DJ. ('Notting Hill Gate' or 'Bayswater' Tube Stations and Buses 7, 23, 27, 28, 31, 70, 328)

Who will teach the course?

The course will be taught by Jean Khoury, a full-time theologian who has studied and taught Spiritual Life in the Church for over twenty years. As well as lecturing world-wide on spiritual life and meditation, Jean is the author of several books, articles and studies on spiritual life and the founder of the School of Mary, a three-level formation in spiritual life (www.amorvincit.com).

Jean obtained a degree in Philosophy from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (France), a Licence in Theology from the Teresianum (Rome) and a Masters in Spiritual Theology from the Institute Catholique de Toulouse (France). He is currently completing his PhD in Spiritual Theology at the Angelicum (Rome) with Monsignor François-Marie Léthel. Courses at the School of Mary constitute his sole source of income.

How much will the course cost?

The cost for the course is £12 per lesson/ £120 for the full course. As the venue has limited capacity and we expect demand to be very high, participants will need to register and pay a deposit of £25 in advance with any remaining balance to be paid on the first day.

How do I sign up for the course?

Participants will need to register to attend the course and pay a £25 deposit.

If you have any questions, please do write to schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com and we will be happy to respond.

The Course will be recorded. So if you want to watch it, please contact us.

Course: Practising Lectio Divina

Practising Lectio Divina
September - 2016

What content is covered?

This Three-day Course provides: 

1- How Lectio Divina works (theory).

2- A guided practice of it.

3- Workshop (difficulties and challenges).

4- Questions and answers.

Listening to the Word of God and putting it into practice is known as Lectio Divina. It provides by far the most powerful boost to our Spiritual Life. "If [Lectio Divina] is effectively promoted, this practice will bring to the Church - I am convinced of it - a new spiritual springtime." (Pope Benedict)

This course encourages us to draw closer to the Lord in a very real way through:

- practical advice on how to listen to Jesus with the support of graphic illustrations.

- guided and commented practice.

- learning to discern with greater certainty when it is Jesus who speaks and not us.

- understanding temptations to flee from the practice and learning to overcome them.

- workshops, questions and answers.

Despite considerable efforts to practise it, plus the variety of methods on offer, many faithful feel that they are unsuccessful in listening to the Lord, and are often unsure if it is He who has spoken. For Lectio Divina to succeed and be sustainable in the future, it has to be taught and the practicalities and difficulties dealt with through questions.

With the reform of the Lectionary by the Council of Vatican II, "easier access to the Scriptures" has been "provided to all the Christian faithful” (Dei Verbum, 22). Through Missals, Monthly Publications, Liturgical Calendars, Websites and Applications, access to daily readings of the Mass, to prayer and listening to the Lord has been facilitated – an important grace for our times.

Who might find the course useful? 

The course is for all of us who would like to deepen their practice of Lectio Divina, or just want to learn how to listen to the Lord.

As with all School of Mary courses, the Patroness of the Course is Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus. The content of the course has received the approval and blessing of H.E. Peter Smith, Archbishop of Southwark.

Dates and times of the Course are:

17th, 24th September and 1st October 2016, from 10 am to 4:30 pm.

Refreshments are provided. Please bring a packed lunch.

Where the course takes place?

The course will take place at St Mary of the Angels, Moorhouse Road, Bayswater, London, W2 5DJ. ('Notting Hill Gate' or 'Bayswater' Tube Stations and Buses 7, 23, 27, 28, 31, 70, 328)

Who will teach the course? 

The course will be taught by Jean Khoury, a full-time theologian who has studied and taught Spiritual Life in the Church for over twenty years. As well as lecturing world-wide on spiritual life and meditation, Jean is the author of several books, articles and studies on spiritual life and the founder of the School of Mary, a three-level formation in spiritual life (www.amorvincit.com). 

Jean obtained a degree in Philosophy from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (France), a Licence in Theology from the Teresianum (Rome) and a Masters in Spiritual Theology from the Institute Catholique de Toulouse (France). He is currently completing his PhD in Spiritual Theology at the Angelicum (Rome) with Monsignor François-Marie Léthel. Courses at the School of Mary constitute his sole source of income.

How much will the course cost?

The cost for the course is £25 per day / £75 for the full course. As the venue has limited capacity and we expect demand to be very high, participants will need to register and pay a deposit of £25 in advance with any remaining balance to be paid on 17th September.

How do I sign up for the course?

Participants will need to register to attend the course and pay a £25 deposit. 

In order to register, please EITHER 

* Email schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com with your name and contact details and we will be in touch with details of how to pay the deposit by bank transfer OR 

* Complete the booking form overleaf and send it along with a cheque for £25 payable to Jean Khoury to:

School of Mary, 

Flat 6 Carlton Mansions,

14 Holland Park Gardens,

London W14 8DW

If you have any questions, please do phone Francesca at: 07527 907642

or write to schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com and we will be happy to respond.

Course: Bible and Spiritual Life

The School of Mary

Intermediate Course First Level

Bible and Spiritual Life

London - September – November 2016

Lecturer – Jean Khoury

Many catholics are encouraged to use their Bible with fervour and to practise Lectio Divina. This is not an easy task! It takes time and practice! Support is needed as finding the Lord's light or "our daily bread" in the Bible can be a challenge – albeit very worthwhile.

This course is about deepening the relationship between the "Bible" and our "Spiritual Life": in a word, it aims at helping us view the Bible as the source of our daily nourishment.

What makes this course unique is, first, the choice of topics (substantial and rarely addressed topics) and, secondly, relating them to our Spiritual Life!

As always, Our Lady continues to lead us on our journey.

The classes will take place on Wednesday from 10am – 12am in the parish house of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, Moorhouse Road W2 5DJ. The entrance is located to the left of the church entrance.

Everyone is welcome to the course, also those who have not attended the First Level Course as the material is enlightening in its own right.

Cost: £120

For registration please email schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com with your name and contact details and we will be in touch with bank details OR send a check including your name and contact details made payable to Jean Khoury, sent to Maartje Skare, 3 Hereford Square, SW7 4TT, London.

Dates and Topics of classes

Wednesday 14 September	The new prophetical life inaugurated by Jesus for every human being: God makes of us a friend and wants to talk to us. The practical meaning and the fruitfulness of this new prophetism.
Wednesday 21 September	The relationship between the Theory of Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and our Spiritual Life. The action of God in the human author and its practical consequences for us.
Wednesday 28 September	Structure and meaning of the Gospel in relation to our Spiritual Life. Reading and analysis of key passages from the Gospel.
Wednesday 5 October	Continuation of analysis of key texts and foundations of our spiritual life.
Wednesday 12 October	Questions of exegesis: The Holy Spirit Exegete of the Bible. The intelligence of Scripture in the Fathers of the Church.
Wednesday 2 November	Questions of exegesis: Examples from the Fathers of the Church. The relationship between the Old and New Testament. Rules for our spiritual life.
Wednesday 9 November	Mary and the Word of God. Mary as our model and help in our relationship with the Word of God.
Wednesday 16 November	The Bible is the soul of God's Revelation to us. The Bible is a treasure one learns to draw from on a daily basis. Practical advice.
Wednesday 23 November	Difficulties when confronting an archaic text, a different language and culture. What is to be done with "modern" exegesis? The Bible: doubt, power, pleasure and possession. Conclusions.

140: Finished and Unfinished Lectio Divina

from 'General to 'Particular' Light

________

The most challenging part in Lectio Divina is 'Listening'

The practice of Lectio Divina involves three movements: I- Preparation II- Listening III- Putting into Practice.

The first part gives us the spirit in which we practise Lectio Divina. It takes little time but it actually permeates the entire process of Lectio. The third part is the goal of Lectio: by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, we put into practice a Word we have heard from Jesus. On a practical level, experience shows that the most challenging part in Lectio is the second: "listening", where by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, we become capable of "hearing" and being touched by a practical word given to us by Christ.

Experience shows that the process of Listening is longer and more complex than we might think at first sight. It involves at least five stages (see the fifteen steps of Lectio Divina):

1- Listening to Jesus' word by reading in order to understand the text.

2- Listening to Jesus' word by reading in order to discover Christ’s will.

3- Listening to Jesus' word by reading until only one light is seen.

4- Listening to Jesus' word by reading until the light becomes clear.

5- Listening to Jesus' word by putting it into writing so we become more aware of the word received, and to have it ready to be put into practice (optional but recommended).

The various progressive phases of listening are normal for every human being, especially the need to read the text of Holy Scripture many times in order to compensate for our weak memories. In fact, for many today memory is very weak. This, however, was not the case a few decades ago, or even further back when culture was more oral and transmission was preferred through oral means and memory. Memory consequently grew stronger. When we read the passage about Mary: "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19) we are faced with a time where memory was still capable of retaining information with great ease. In this light "pondered them" could be translated by: "often dwelling on them in her mind", which means constantly repeating them in her mind.

This initial effort is dependent on a previous phase: to gather everything that happened and to "keep all" of it in the mind. This is the role of the memory.

"Listening", next, is a listening “through”... listening to God who speaks through the words and facts of an event.

Stages 3 and 4 require great delicacy when listening.

Providing we listen carefully, with all our heart, the supernatural action of God, will cause his words to come alive and capable of “talking” to us. In this case some words in the two or three readings start to talk to us, all in one and unique light, as if alive. We are touched by one light, one meaning, for example, mercy, love, forgiveness, patience,... At this stage, stage 3, we are facing the supernatural action of God but we do not have a clear practical insight on what to do exactly. The notion received is two abstract, in the sense that it is too general.

The first temptation now is to take this notion and apply it by ourselves to an area in our life that needs it. This, however, constitutes our interference in the process of the descent of the Word of God in us.

As the drawing reveals, we ourselves can create a diversion in the normal course of the action of God's Light, and we bring it down applying it to an area different to the area God wants to act upon.

Another much more common temptation is to first rejoice that the supernatural action of God has started - the proof is that the two or three texts are saying one thing - and secondly, at this point, not to progress toward a clear indication of God's will received at the end of Lectio Divina. Some would think that this was a complete Lectio Divina, while others will remain with their hunger unsatisfied by not having seen anything practical emerging from their lectio, with no change of will being indicated and nothing practical to perform.

What has really happened is that Lectio has been brought to a halt in the middle of the stream of thought, and although a light is being offered, it is left hanging between heaven and earth. (see the diagram below)

Apologies for making the following comparison because it might seem very brutal and inappropriate, but if we stick to its real meaning it will help: when Lectio is stopped at this stage, Lectio is 'aborted', which means it fails to reach our will, where it fails to achieve fruition. Fruition, therefore, means to allow God's light to descend until it reaches the point that God desires to touch in our will. This is the end of stage 4 (see diagram below).

More significantly this indicates that between where we are and the region God wants to reach, there is still some work to do in order to facilitate the way for the Light to descend. See in the diagram below the part that is left in darker blue:

The image of the motorcade will clearly illustrate this. When an important political personality is travelling, sometimes we have two sets of motorcycles opening the way for him or her. Similarly, we are not the Light, we do not direct the light. We just open the way for it, descending closer to our will that needs to be healed. Thus we humble ourselves, we beg and ask, being more attentive to Jesus' whispering (remember Elijah's gentle breeze), telling us what He wants to change in us. This entails another effort to be humble and beg being made to allow what is now already supernatural but too general, too abstract, to become precise, clear and practical. Only when the light has reached our will, indicating, first, a practical area that needs changing in our heart, may we then consider that fruition is in sight.

As a conclusion, therefore, when we practise Lectio Divina, and when we start to sense that the supernatural light of God is starting to appear, occurring when the two texts say the same thing, it is important not only to rejoice with gratitude, but to continue to open the way, humbling ourselves more and more, asking the Lord to tell us how He want to incarnate the word or light or indication He is revealing to us. Only humbling ourselves will open the way for Jesus' Word to reach us, touch our will, heal us, challenge us, enflame us. Within reason, therefore, we should not stop Lectio until the grace of God has touched us.

118: Lectio Divina, each word is a diamond

From a commentary on the Diatessaron by Saint Ephrem, deacon

(1, 18-19: SC 121, 52-53)

God’s word is an inexhaustible spring of life

Lord, who can comprehend even one of your words? We lose more of it than we grasp, like those who drink from a living spring. For God’s word offers different facets according to the capacity of the listener, and the Lord has portrayed his message in many colors, so that whoever gazes upon it can see in it what suits him. Within it he has buried manifold treasures, so that each of us might grow rich in seeking them out.

The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. It is like that rock which was struck open in the wilderness, from which all were offered spiritual drink. As the Apostle says: They ate spiritual food and they drank spiritual drink.

And so whenever anyone discovers some part of the treasure, he should not think that he has exhausted God’s word. Instead he should feel that this is all that he was able to find of the wealth contained in it. Nor should he say that the word is weak and sterile or look down on it simply because this portion was all that he happened to find. But precisely because he could not capture it all he should give thanks for its riches.

Be glad then that you are overwhelmed, and do not be saddened because he has overcome you. A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For if you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more; but if when your thirst is sated the spring is also dried up, then your victory would turn to your own harm.

Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on.

Newsletter: "Bible and Spiritual Life" Course

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

Dear All,

This is a special email regarding the Intermediate Course: The Bible and Spiritual Life

1- The course on "Bible and Spiritual life" is important in strengthening our personal practice of Lectio Divina. With this course it is as if Jesus was giving each one of us the Bible in his hands, as His Word.

Some might be tempted to overlook the nature and value of the "Bible and Spiritual Life" course as well as the subsequent workshops on Lectio Divina and the Prayer of the heart. They might solely focus on attending the Second Level Course and this would be a huge error. One has to grow spiritually in order to reach the point where one would need the food of the Second Level Course - and this course helps us grow in Lectio Divina. Otherwise the "learning process" becomes too intellectual/theoretical.

We implore you to register for the ‘Bible and Spiritual Life’ course, in order to benefit fully from the Second Level Course.

2- Presentation of the Course:

September-October 2014: 4 Saturdays

Since 2007 many people in London have been attending the First Level Course, "Initiation into Spiritual Life". As a result, many have been encouraged to use their Bible more fervently and to practice Lectio Divina. However, support is still needed, as finding "food" in the Bible is not an easy task. This is why the "Intermediate 1 Course" is about deepening the relationship between the "Bible" and our "Spiritual Life": in a word, it aims at helping us view the Bible as the source of our daily nourishment.

What makes this course unique is, first, the choice of topics(important, "juicy" and rarely addressed topics) and, secondly,relating them to our Spiritual Life! As always, Our Lady continues to lead us on our journey.

A Certificate will be awarded to all those who attend the entire four days.

The dates are: Sat 27th Sept, Sat 4th Oct, Sat 18th Oct, Sat 25th Oct, from 10.00 am to 4:30 pm. Venue: St Mary of the Angels Parish hall, Moorhouse Road, W2 5DJ, Notting Hill. Spaces are limited for this course. The cost is £ 25.00 per day. Should there be any places remaining, we can accept those who did not follow the First Level Course.

To secure your place, a non-refundable deposit of £ 50.00 should be paid by cheque or bank transfer. Please send an email or call to confirm payment. Email: schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com or call 07908513762.

The Topics are:

1st Saturday:

Structure and meaning of the Gospel in relation to our Spiritual Life.

Reading and analysing essential and fundamental texts from the Gospel in relation to our spiritual life.

2nd Saturday:

The relationship between the Theory of Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and our spiritual life. Explanation of the action of God in the human author and its practical consequences for us.

The new prophetical life inaugurated by Jesus for every human being: God makes of us a friend and wants to talk to us.

The practical meaning and the fruitfulness of this new prophetism.

3rd Saturday:

Exegetical questions: the Holy Spirit Exegete of the Bible; the intelligence of the Scriptures in the Fathers of the Church; the example of the Fathers of the Church; the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament; exegetical Rules for our spiritual life.

The Bible is the soul of God's Revelation to us, and is a treasure whose riches we can draw upon on a daily basis. Practical advice.

4th Saturday:

Difficulties when confronting an archaic text, a different language and culture. What is to be done with "modern" exegesis?

The Bible: doubt, power, pleasure and possession.

Conclusions.

3- Those who can't attend a full day on some of the Saturdays but would be able to make it either in the morning (10 to 1:30) or in the afternoon (2:20-4:30), can still come and attend. But one needs to commit to the entire course.

4- If you cannot attend half a day or an entire day you may still attend. An audio recording will be available at the end of the Course. So it is important to "commit" to the entire Course.

We look forward to seeing you and continuing the Journey toward Union with Jesus, led by His Mother.

In Her,

School of Mary