Semester 1 Requirements

Below are the requirements for Year 1 – Semester 1

  1. Participation in monthly spiritual direction sessions.
  2. Participation in a minimum of 7 of 8 online sessions. (Mondays) and all scheduled weekend sessions.  
  3. Completion of the Pre-Class Reading and Reflection Questions for all online classes.   Reflections should be posted prior to the start of each Monday class.
  4. The following books are required reading for semester one:*

Kaleidoscope, Edited by Ineda Pearl Adesanya, 2019, Church Publishing, NY, NY and

Invitation to a Journey, by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Expanded Edition 2016, IVP Books, 

Downers Grove, IL

Please note that all of these books may be accessed and purchased via our website. 
The institute receives a small percentage from using these links.

Plus ONE of the books below (your choice): 

Holiness and the Feminine Spirit, art by Janet McKenzie, 2009, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY

Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God, Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Matthew Linn, 1994, Paulist Press, NJ

Streams of Living Water, Richard J. Foster, 2001, HarperCollins Publishing, SanFrancisco

Four Women Doctors of the Church, by Mary T. Malone, 2015 Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY

Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings, Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, 2012, Skylight Paths Publishing,  Nashville, TN

Julien of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic, Matthew Fox and Mirabai Starr, iUniverse, Bloomington, IN.

The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, by Rohr and Ebert, 2014, The Crossroad Publishing Company, NY.

African Saints: 40 Holy Men and Women – by. Camille Lewis Brown, PH.D. 2008, Franciscan Media.org

  1. Write your spiritual autobiography.  Detailed instructions for your spiritual autobiography will be given during the semester.  
  1. Complete the “Self-Reflection on My Spiritual Journey” form.  The second page of this form provides instructions for the book summaries to be written.
  1. Meet with the Mentor to whom you are assigned during the last month of class for this semester.  (Your mentor will contact you to schedule this meeting.)
  2. Fulfill the covenant agreed to in your application for this 2-year program.  

I covenant to:

  • Growth in my relationship with God.
  • To meet monthly with my spiritual director.
  • To be faithful to daily spiritual practice.
  • To bring as much of myself as is possible to each session.
  • To come prepared for class.
  • To an openness to deep self-reflection.
  • To honest and respectful communication.
  • To a willingness to try new ways of praying, new ways of knowing/experiencing God.
  • To being a participant in this spiritual growth community, which requires vulnerability, honesty, and a non-judgmental acceptance of self and others.