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COMING IN LENT
Ancient Christian Prayer Practices (for ages 16 and up)
4pm Wednesdays Feb. 21-Mar. 27
Join Brother Thomas Watts, a lay Cistercian monk (and our chef for last year’s Dinner & A Movie!) for this six-week
Lenten class. Topics to be covered include:
-- Centering Prayer: Returning to God
-- Lectio Divina: Prayerful, meditative reading of Scripture
-- Contemplative Prayer: Sitting with & in God’s presence
-- Prayer of the Imagination: Free association with thought, prayer and imagination to journal.
“Hello, my name is Brother Thomas ELC. In 2016, I began undertaking a Lay Monastic Vocation with the Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. In 2020, after completing my discernment process, I accepted the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta’s, Monastic Vocation as Holy Orders. I was placed in
Spiritual Direction with Father Ken Swanson. The program I’ll be presenting, in part, is taken from Father Swansons’ Episcopal Spiritual Direction, and my own personal formation process as a Lay Cistercian Monk over the last six years. Both practices focus mainly on the Wisdom tradition of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
“Having a deep relationship with God is paramount for the development of joy! Developing a daily prayer practice has been proven as first steps toward a deeper relationship with the Trinitarian God. One of the virtues of a dedicated daily prayer
practice is what Cistercian monks call a Conversion of Manners. This takes place during the development of a spiritual and Godly relationship. At first, outwardly your appearance remains, but Inwardly the change is profound — until the inner soul shines brighter than a city on a hill or a lamp on a stand.”
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