Deep Abiding

Meditation/Interior Prayer for Being a Channel of Healing Peace

Registration

To register for this six-week program, please email Catherine Quehl-Engel. In your email, please indicate which introductory retreat and which of the four other sessions listed below you would like to attend.

Available sessions

Introductory retreat session options:
Sunday, Feb. 10, 1-3 p.m. or Tuesday, Feb. 12, 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Five other learning and spiritual reflection sessions: 
Option A: Sundays from 1-2:30 p.m., Feb. 17 - Mar. 24 (excluding spring break)
Option B: Tuesdays from 3:15-4:40 p.m., Feb. 19 - Mar. 26 (excluding spring break)

Program description

Spiritual wisdom traditions speak of our need for both inward surrender and cultivating an awareness which—like an antenna or little radio dial inside us, sensitizes and tunes us in to the deep abiding presence, healing action and energies of the divine coursing through us and all creation. St. Paul spoke of this indwelling life force energy as pneuma or Spirit while other social-historically shaped traditions have used names like Ruach (over 380 references in Hebrew Scriptures/the Old Testament), Sophia (Hebrew and Greek), Chi (Chinese), ki (Japanese), prana (yoga system of India) Bindu (Tibet), Baraka (Sufism), and Wakan (Lakota). Meanwhile scientific paradigms of the universe speak of creation and the cosmos as one living, conscious, interactive being thereby confirming what Eastern and Western mystical traditions have said for centuries concerning the illusion of our separateness.

In this program we will cultivate the habit of shifting awareness from over-identification with anxious thoughts and feelings of ego-mind’s separated sense of self to a “putting on the mind of Christ” practice of inward surrender and syncing of heart and mind with unbounded, indwelling Light or energy of the Divine as ones Deepest Self—the same Spirit or life force energy permeating and linking us one to the other. The result is not only inner peace and strength, well being and oneness, and a more skillful relationship with fear, but a more spacious, courageous, compassionate life stance which alters the way we perceive and relate to self, others, our problems, G-d, and the world. 

Through Prayer of the Heart and Body meditation and spiritual reflection this program seeks to cultivate attunement and identification with this Deeper Self so we perceive, pray, live, lead, love, and work as an open valve or channel through which G-d’s energies and love flow for the healing peace and wholeness of self, others, community, and earth.

Study implements Christianity’s Divine Indwelling mystical tradition and related meditation/ healing prayer practices with related inter-spiritual wisdom and scientific studies on consciousness, intention, spiritual healing, psycho-physiological resonance, and research on how meditation rewires the brain. Led by college chaplain Catherine Quehl-Engel as part of a doctoral research project in spiritual.

Program requirements

Open to all students, faculty, staff, and community members willing to be participants in this program and research study by committing to:

1. Prayer of the Heart and Body with compassion and healing light meditation for 20 or more minutes, once or twice a day, five or more days a week.
2. Shift consciousness amid every day interactions and activities through inwardly relinquishing, relaxing, realigning, and sending healing love and light.
3. Participation in:
   1. an introductory retreat (two to three hours) at the start of Lent,
   2. four weekly learning and spiritual reflection sessions (75-90 minutes), and
   3. completing an on-line survey at the start and end of the program as well as a three to six months follow up assessment (10-15 minutes).