The Foundation Course (Christian Spirituality)

Relational Spirituality

An Eight Part Course in Discovering your Unique Spirituality
by
Sergio Milandri

1.Our Spirituality is who we are: Our Spirituality embraces our deepest self. It holds all that we are, all that we have been through over the years, our experiences and memories, our hurts and our habits. It also carries our future, all that we long for, live for and fear in our years to come. It makes this all a part of our daily lived experience. Thus, our patterns of being and doing, the way we see and respond is the quality of our lived spirituality.

2. Each of us has a Unique Spirituality: Because so much of our spirituality has been shaped by our life experiences, it follows that each of us has one that is unique. Just as we each have a body that has all the same parts as another, yet it is totally individual, so our spirituality is a distinctive and personal manifestation of who we are. Our awareness of our spirituality depends on how and nurture of it and this is realised in how we live out our days and moments. If we embrace our spirituality and care for it, we find ourselves more connected and at peace, whereas if we neglect or abuse it, our centeredness and ability to relate suffer.

3. A Spirituality of Relationships: Who we are is so fundamentally shaped by the people who have been part of our lives and the relationships we have experienced with them that our spirituality has a largely relational basis, one that is characterised by the strengths and weaknesses of our relationships. The fundamental point in question here is how we relate with ourselves. The caliber of our relationship with ourselves will determine the quality of our relating with others, but ironically, it is the way others relate to us that largely controls the way we relate to ourselves. This is what causes so much difficulty around the question of who we really are. This entangled dependance can only be clarified when we develop a good relationship with ourselves.

This Course aims to explore the inter links between the spiritual and physical aspects of our lives and to learn through our feelings and in meditation how to come to a greater unity of being. It takes place over eight weeks so that we can experience the bigger picture that our spirituality gives us in the context of our everyday patterns and concerns. This involves becoming aware of the way we live and the values and beliefs that support this life-style. The course seeks to bring clarity to where we are in ourselves and what choices we have if we are to be true to God as well as to our deeper desires.
The spirituality of our different relationships is reviewed and options explored if we are to become more integrated in our lives.
The essence of the Course is not one of providing easy answers to life’s problems but of enabling us to ask the right questions, the answers to which will guide the way we live and develop our spirituality. The sharing of a common journey with others on the course gives rich support and relief. The Eight weekly Sessions of the Course are as follows:

Part 1. Free Introductory session. Overview of the course. Our Spirituality as the Dance of the Physical and the Spiritual Sides of Ourselves.

Part 2. Relationship and Personhood. Relating to Ourselves.

Part 3. Feelings as the Language of Relationship. Beliefs, attitudes and expectations.

Part 4. Relating to Other People. Mirrors and Lenses.

Part 5. Relating to God. Whose God and which God? Meditation.

Part 6. Living fully in the present moment. Right relationship.

Part 7. Relating to Things and Nature. Intimacy. Loving people, using things.

Part 8. Learning to live the cycle of loving.

This course is currently not scheduled to run in 2008. If you would like to be informed of when this course will run again please contact us.