Welcome to our Workshop space!

Welcome to The Prayer of the Heart Workshop! This online practicum will explore one of the practical means of meditation and prayer from the Inner Path that is found in all world spiritual traditions, which in the West is often called "The Sophia Tradition."

The workshop space will open on the Fall Equinox, September 22, and the workshop will run from September 29 through November 23. Online Chats through www.skype.com will be conducted on the Thursdays at 4:00 pm Pacific Time, beginning Oct 2 to Nov 20.

Prelminary Remarks:

1. There are two required books for this workshop:

The Wisdom Way of Knowing by Cynthia Bourgeault

Pray Without Ceasing: The Way of the Invocation in World Religions by Patrick Laude

These are available on our Bookstore page for this course. There are other recommended texts availalble there as well. If you choose to read additional books on this subject matter, please post book reviews in our Book Review wiki for all to share!

New this semester: If you read French, I highly recommend two excellent works on this subject area published by Diffusuion Rosicrucienne in France, by an RCUI instructor in Montréal:

Charest, Aline. La Prière du Coeur: Pour entrer dans la silence de Dieu
Charest, Aline. Les Grande Voies de l'amour
(Also available directly from Diffusion Rosicrucienne.)

If you do read French and purchase one or both of these, if you would like to post commentary on the book and a book review for us in English in the Book Review Wiki, that would be very welcome!

2. Our work will take place in the Threads in the weekly spaces, and also in online chats, scheduled for the Thursdays of our eight-week course.

3. The first week the classroom space is open (Sept 22-28) will provide you with three primary activities:

• Obtaining the books for the course.
• Time to explore the online environment and get to know the wetpaint wiki system. As part of this process, please review the Prayer of the Heart Overview and Course Outline, complete the brief assignment and also let us know your level of comfort with the technology.
• Get a head-start on completing the course work for Week 1

4. If you have any questions, please use the General Questions Thread or Technical Questions Thread below. I look forward to working with everyone to explore the Prayer of the Heart.

5. Finally, and most importantly, participating in the class includes a personal committment to work on the exercises and experiments for each week to the best of your ability, and to share what you wish to about those experiences with the group. Since this is a practicum, your participation and sharing is essential.

With Best Wishes for Peace Profound,

Steven Armstrong
Course Facilitator