Light and darkness are familiar themes in Christian spirituality. Though we tend to prefer one over the other, they are a package deal. When we pull them apart, as we so often try to do, we end up distorting the nature and gift of God’s infinite love, which manifests through them both.
Lent is a time when darkness and light meet in a particularly startling fashion. This 4-week series invites participants to prepare for Lent by focusing on four distinct times that mark the waxing and waning of our faith in God’s infinite Love:
- Light, which is a time of clarity and renewal that offers us the gift of clarity rising from unfathomable yet silent mystery;
- Light turning to darkness, a time of shadows and approaching darkness that calls us to listen intently to the inner music that never stops and the dance that never ends;
- Darkness, when, as one mystic puts it, “all things exhale in their yearning for communion,” and challenges us to seek them out with wonder and joy like a melody we cannot forget;
- Darkness Turning to Light, a time when light returns breaking over the horizon that has marked the edges of our night to reveal colors only imagined (or remembered) in the night.
These times will be explored in relation to our own experiences of darkness and light as well as to Jesus’ passion and resurrection. Several questions will guide discussions: What hour most closely describes where I find myself in relation to my own inner Light? What is its invitation to me now? What times in Jesus’ passion and resurrection reflect this time?
Facilitator
Isaura Barrera is a lifelong spiritual seeker. She retired as a professor at the University of New Mexico for 20 years and returned to San Antonio where she enrolled in the Master’s of Spirituality program at OST. She is now focused on her primary interest and wishes to share it with others. She has developed Skilled Dialogue, an approach to dialogue across differences with a strong spiritual base. She has also published an e-book Beloved’s Gift: Following Soul’s Song into Love, Hope and Faith with Balboa Press.
In this short series, Isaura shares the lessons she has learned about staying faithful to her soul’s song—God’s voice—through times of both darkness and light. Course will be highly interactive, using music, scripture, poetry and the words of spiritual writers to illustrate material and inspire participants to trace their own path through darkness and light as they prepare for Lent.
Class Dates
February 20, 2018
February 27, 2018
March 6, 2018
March 13, 2018
Registration fee for series is $20
Registration
For information or to register by phone, contact Noemy at (210) 341-1366 EXT 212
20% discount for groups of 5 or more.
Continuing Education events are free* to all enrolled OST students.
All other students, 50% off with student ID.
To receive discount, register with Noemy Colón at ncolon@ost.edu or (210) 341-1366 EXT 212
*Does not apply to meals and lodging.
All refunds subject to 10% processing fee.