Sacré-Coeur Association of New South Wales Inc"

Australian Study Plan:

Programme Front Page (pdf)
Study Plan by Topics is available for printing in either pdf or MSWord

An Open letter to facilitators of and participants in “Journeys of the Heart”

Thank you for agreeing to begin a journey with your study group. This is a letter from Penny Sturrock and myself just to offer you our support and a few guidelines for the study programme. We are available at any time to discuss the contents of this programme as well as offering some suggestions on how it could be run.
Penny’s email is sturrock@ign.com.au and my email is alex_gorman@bigpond.com
Firstly you do not need to be a trained facilitator to run this group. This is a role that could also be shared by a number of people in your group. In the pages that follow there are some suggestions about how to set up for the group and some group guidelines such as confidentiality.It would be helpful to read through the study programme in full before you start with your group so that you can get a “feel” for its overall intention.
You will find that we have placed stimulus/ background reading on the left page (odd numbered pages) while work to be completed in the group sessions is on the right hand page (even numbered pages).You may find that you don’t manage to finish each topic due to the number of questions that are set so feel free to choose those questions that you consider to be most important.The overall intentions of this programme are:
* To explore in more detail the theme “Collaboration for a Transformed World”
* To explore the meaning of each person’s Sacred Heart education
* To explore “who we are now” in relation to our own view of ourselves, our relationship with others, God and our relationship with the world
* To explore our own unique stories with particular reference to any themes and search for meaning we might discern
* To honour the richness and variety of our stories including the joys and dark times, seeing the Spirit of God in them all
* To aim for a “lived” spirituality that simultaneously cultivates self love, love for others, love for God and love for life itself (Adapted from The Universal Heart by Stephanie Dowrick)
* To broaden and challenge our thinking on “who God is” to us.
* To explore the idea that “God is Love” and “Love is God”
* To seriously consider the promise that God loves us totally and to more readily accept the love that others give and gift, to us
* To invite participants to name and claim their God given gifts not so that they can be paraded, but so they can be acted upon more courageously
* To begin to practice meditation in the Christian tradition (to experience stillness, silence and simplicity)
* To learn to reflect on a regular basis on where and how the spirit is moving and calling us in our lives
* To begin to take greater responsibility for our own spiritual journeys- building on the faith of our childhood and early schooling and giving it the maturity of our.life’s journey
* To develop a great understanding of the role of the RSCJ around the globe and consider ways to bring the religious and the alumnae into closer collaboration
* To develop ways to build deeper networks and connections with alumnae from our own countries and around the world
* To explore our response to justice, peace and the integrity of creation with the aim of taking action particularly where it relates to the work of the RSCJ.

Penny Sturrock (Frost) and Alex Fernon (Gorman)
August 2005