“And the WORD became Flesh and dwelt (from Gr. made a tent) among us.”
Jesus came to make a tent of His Presence among us so we will see our Creator face to face.
The Fire of Love and the Cloud of the Unknown materialized so our prophetic voices can rise with the magnitude of hope.
The tent of His Presence dwells in your heart, you are inhabited by the Everlasting Omnipresence.
From now on, the time and space, your body’s boundaries, are anointed into receiving the revelation of the Word Incarnate.
You have an access to the One Who Is.
This prayer course differs from previous Lectio Divina Courses. It includes some of the same info but it focuses on artist’s soul and its formation to become a creative catalyst and fountain of Divine expression of Beauty. The practicums include Visio Divina, Cinema Divina and Audio Divina and prompts to create in various genres of art as the result of practicing Scriptural Lectio Divina.
The purpose for this Lectio Divina is to awaken human heart to co-create with the Holy Spirit from the place of His Presence. In other words, to compel artists to become prophets of the Creator instead of stopping just at the unredeemed human expression of artistry. The process of the development of the gift is as important as the development of the heart of the carrier of the gift and we will explore it throughly.
Lectio Divina means Divine Reading. It is divine because we are allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts while praying the Scriptures and listening to what He is saying now, today. This way of prayer incarnates the Living Word into our hearts and we become more like Jesus. It is an ancient way practiced by Christians of all streams and denominations. It’s simple and life giving, it renews the mind, enflames the heart and empowers for action.
It is the fastest way to start hearing God’s voice and to develop your revelatory and prophetic gifts.
It is the most natural way of communing with God and staying in His presence while following your day to day schedule.
It is the way of prayer practiced by the Christians since the time of the Book of Acts and its goal is to eat the scroll and become like Jesus. You will encounter the living Word of God in a way that is intimate and redeeming.
It develops attentiveness, self-knowledge, deepens the awareness of God and constructs the habit of walking in the Spirit. You become a person living contemplative life, ie perceiving the reality with Jesus’ heart.
It engages body and soul, mind and heart, in the rhythm of freely flowing grace.
It is often wrongly diminished to a method or technique of few steps instead being taught as a way of spiritual growth, transformation, healing, deliverance, discernment and a continual prayer.
4 weekly sessions:
Preparation of human heart: How reading of the Scriptures can develop attentiveness and lead you into Great Silence where God’s Spirit dwells.
Stirring of the human heart: How meditating on the Scriptures can mold your imagination, confront your sin, fear and shame by encountering beauty of Jesus
Expression of human heart: How Scriptures based prayer become alive as an art of human creativity, honest and unashamed exposition of desires, hope and sufferings, arising as petition, adoration, blessing or intercession
Receiving to the human heart and co-creating: How contemplation dives into the Stillness of His Presence and arises to co-create with the Breath of God
Included:
Short background and development of Lectio Divina Prayer in the pre-monastic, and monastic traditions
What is meditation and what is contemplation, what’s the difference?
Basic understanding of a human person and how God communicates with people
Post-modern Christian confusion about spirituality, prayer, discernment and how to see clearly Jesus’ call to dwell in Him as the Living Word
The role of silence and solitude
How to establish a habit of hearing and listening
How to find, define and establish an artist call. Phases of artist’s development correlating with spiritual formation and life’s challenges
Examples of past centuries and modern day living artists who created from the Presence of God and their creative journey (Michael D. O’Brien, Edith Stein, John Paul II, Hildegard von Bingen, Arvo Part)
Instructor:
Iwona Bednarz-Major, Co-Founder and Director of Stone to Flesh and MajorChange.
What you get:
Four weekly live video sessions that include almost six hours of teaching, practicum and Q & A
What you will need:
Bible
Journal, pen
Cost:
$45 per person
$65 per couple
If you live outside of the USA your price might be adjusted. Contact: iwona@stonetoflesh.org
“The poet enters into himself in order to create. The contemplative enters into God in order to be created.”
“God needs prophets in order to make himself known, and all prophets are necessarily artists. What a prophet has to say can never be said in prose.’ But if all prophets are artists, then surely not all artists are prophets.”
“This course was really impactful to me and my heart. I live near Seattle, so Stone to Flesh and Major Change were both new to me. I was blown away by the depth of information given in this course. Witnessing Iwona teach and interacting with students was witnessing the Holy Spirit teach and inspire through her. This course did not feel produced; it felt alive, real, authentic, deep, challenging and inspiring. It has helped me to recognize the call I feel as an artist and to name that call and to begin to take it more seriously. More importantly, it has given me a further vision of radical, authentic discipleship of Christ. I feel an urgent, fervent desire to create, to serve, to follow and to minister, to help build God’s kingdom, and it was an honor and blessing to be introduced to others who feel similarly. I can be impatient and want to understand now what the Lord is calling me to. That call is unfolding slowly. It was good for me to learn about others whose calling unfolded over many years, decades, a lifetime. Of course, it must all be in the Lord’s timing. Thank you so much for this course! I hope to do more!”
“This course helped me to see the value and NECESSITY of putting myself and my writing through “the winepress,” which is Jesus Himself. I think this is my most immediate step to take: putting myself and inspirations through the winepress by not doing anymore writing or art for awhile. On a completely different topic, my heart is completely enamored with the idea and practice of keeping secrets with God. For the first time, I am actually desiring (on a natural level) to preserve this secret place and not share my experiences in prayer as much, as opposed to the past, when I would be doing that mostly out of obligation and duty. Overall I’m grateful for the course, all the new artists I’ve met, and especially for the different examples of contemplative artists whose lives we looked at. Thank you Iwona!!”