Prayer Guide Training Course
This
course is designed to enable you to begin guiding/accompanying
others as they take part in Ignatian based retreats.
It
has been continuously evolving since the first such training in
Birmingham that was introduced by Fr Gerry HughesSJ and
associates in the late 1980s.
It
is a starter-course which will equip you to begin accompanying
pilgrims on retreats. If you do that as part of Manresa Link
there is always supervision, and encouragement to take part in
ongoing training/development over time.
The course will consist initially of 10 Saturday
mornings, commencing on January 13th 2024, but with a
break on February 24th. These will all take place at
St Mary’s Convent, 98 Hunters Rd, Lozells, Birmingham B19 1EB
The
Saturdays will then be followed by two Retreats In Daily Life (4
weeks duration). In the first retreat, half of the course
participants will be prayer-guides and the other half will be
retreatants. Then roles reverse for the second retreat.
On
the Saturdays there will be prayer, input on various aspects of
Ignatian Spirituality and on skills needed, and then the “real”
work of the course – the triads! This is small groups of 3 course
participants, one person sharing, one listening and one
observing.
Each
week course participants will be given a piece of Scripture to
pray on daily.
Then,
on all but the first Saturday, participants will be assigned to
groups of three (the triads). In the triads, one person will
share what they have been experiencing in their prayer over the
past week. Another of the three will have been appointed to be a
“prayerguide” to listen to them, and to help them to explore and
deepen. The third person acts as an observer of the listener.
Each
of the three then feedback to the others.
Roles
swap around and repeat the process, so that on each Saturday,
everyone has had a turn at sharing, prayer-guiding and observing.
One
of the training team members will also have been sitting in and
will give overall feedback.
Because
the triads are the heart of the course, it is important that you
attend all sessions – your absence in any one week will disrupt
that process. We do try to have contingency plans for emergencies
but ask that you set attendance as a priority.
Evaluation – during the course there will be a process of
joint evaluation. Participants will be invited to use a
self-evaluation tool to help them to assess for themselves where
their strengths and weaknesses lie, and how these develop
throughout the course as learning takes place. This will be
explored with members of the training team as we go along, but it
is a positive oriented process – discovering your gifts and
helping you to discern God’s call to you.
Cost
The
total cost for this course is £200. We ask for a £50 deposit once
your application is accepted, and that the remaining £150 be paid
at commencement of the course. However, we can consider requests
for bursaries of for more time to pay.
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