The Franciscan Way programs will provide opportunities for the following:
- Learning the historical and spiritual legacy of St. Francis of Assisi and what that legacy means for us today.
- Learning about the human personality.
- Learning new ways of communicating that offer alternatives to "not knowing what to say or how to say it."
- Getting honest about how we take care of our physical bodies.
- Learning about contemplative prayer and practicing it on a regular basis.
- Learning the art of "slowing down.”
Our Franciscan mission is to present programs that inspire Catholics and non-Catholics alike to keep focused on
God as the center of all life. We desire to bring comfort to the sorrowing and discomfort to the too
comfortable. Our message, like the message of St. Francis, is rooted in the Scriptures and intentionally provokes
more questions than gives easy answers. Please join us and bring a friend.
The Franciscan Way Program
- Morning Contemplative Prayer
- Poverty and Prayer
- Straight Talk Theology
- Christian Spirituality: Jesus the Christ
- Br. Joe Schwab, OFM & Carole Whittaker, PhD
- Introduction to Contemplative Prayer
- Ascent to Beauty,
- Labyrinth Walk Workshop
- Franciscan Solitude Experience
- Gifted and Called: Retreat for Gays & Lesbians
- Continuing Contemplative Prayer
See our calendar for a detailed schedule of this years Franciscan Way Program, MALES Casa Fellowship, and Enneagram Studies. You can also download and print our 2008 Catalog.
Enneagram Studies
The Enneagram recognizes an inner self, our soul, as the core of the human person that is always present and reflects the qualities of the Creator. During the course of our development, in forming an egoic self and a capacity for self-reflectivity, we often lose our precognitive, intuitive awareness of God. The spiritual development of the human person moves forward by opening one's awareness and becoming responsive to God. This requires that the person "dies" to oneself and be renewed by trusting in and responding to grace. This view correlates with core Christian experience and teachings regarding creation, God, grace and indwelling Spirit. The process of dying to self is familiar to Christian spirituality and to the message of the Gospels. What the Enneagram contributes is the observation that dying to self takes nine primary forms depending on personality type and that the growing into union with God also happens in nine primary ways. The origins of the Enneagram are Christian. Recent research on the writing of Evagrius of Pontus, a Christian monk who lived in Alexandria in the 4th century, clearly describe the basics of what we call the Enneagram today.
The Enneagram program at the Casa is:
- As well-founded in contemporary psychology as it can be at this stage of its development.
- Utilizes professional and qualified teachers.
- Focuses on psychological and spiritual development (not astrology or numerology).
- Is consistent with and rooted in Christian experience and teaching.
- Serves the needs of those who come to the Casa for spiritual teaching.
In summary, the Enneagram contributes to the view that the human person is both psychological and spiritual, is both a physical being and a spiritual soul. It enables students to see the sacredness in their humanity and to recognize those aspects of their human condition that serve as barriers to grace.
Enneagram Program
- Introduction to the Enneagram
- Working with Projection and Defense
- Disidentifying from Type
- Enneagram in an Evening
- Love& Will in Creating Fulfilling Relationships
- Working with Love and Will in Creating Fulfilling Relationships
- The Enneagram Intensive
See our calendar for a detailed schedule of this years Enneagram Studies.
The Casa enneagram studies do not utilize numerology or astrology in any programs.