School of Holiness Quick Highlights #3

School of Holiness- Quick Highlights #3

 

  

  

From the notebooks of Tommy and Annie

July 8th, 2014

    Margaret gave the first talk of the morning. The focus of her talk was on increasing self-awareness and challenging negative beliefs. It is necessary that a child fall while learning to walk; the same is true of relationships and life experiences.Mentally framing things positively rather than negatively, accesses the more mature part of our brains. This helps us to relate to others from our secure selves rather than our wounded selves.  Contemplative prayer is neuroscientifically proven to make us more compassionate towards ourselves and others.. Self-awareness involves understanding  your wounds and thereby creating authentic relationships . Self-awareness involves three A’s: awareness, acceptance, and action. To be self-conscious is not the same as being aware because it is not grounded in self.

From the notebooks of Annie and Tommy

July 9th, 2014

    Margaret opened with a recap of yesterday’s lesson on self-awareness and went more in depth on the topic. The first part of self-awareness is awareness in which the individual must tune into their body and their thoughts and feelings. The second part is acceptance. When you know what your feelings are, you have to accept that you have them. Two ways that we fail to accept our feelings are denial and judgement. The third part is action. You have two choices on how to respond to your emotions once you are aware and accepting of them. Self-awareness helps you to challenge your distorted beliefs and make different choices.

   

From the notebooks of Annie and Tommy

July 10th, 2014

    This morning, the painting of Our Lady, Queen of the Church arrived from Poland with artist Janusz Antosz. Also, newly arrived this morning was Dr. Mark Miravalle. He spoke to us about Our Lady Queen of the Church, specifically the queenship of Mary and her role in the church as queen mother. Jesus is the king of the universe, as his mother is the queen. Her intercession is as unlimited as her son’s kingdom. The role of mother by its very nature is also the role of a mediator. Mothers mediate between God and their children. Mary mediated the mediator, Christ, to the world. As Mother Teresa said, “No Mary, no Jesus.” A good mother does three things: suffers for her children, nourishes her children, and intercedes for her children. Mary does all of these things for every one of us. She was called to be the Co-redemptrix with Jesus. She was spiritually crucified with her son. As the Immaculate Conception, she would have not experienced any effects of the fall, including pain from childbirth and did not even entertain uncharitable thoughts to her son’s killers. Dr. Mark asked us to imagine that the person we loved most in the world was in the place of Jesus during his crucifixion. Jesus gave us his mother to be our mother and the mother of His church as his last act before dying upon the cross. In this way she became the mediatrix of all graces from Christ to the world. Mary is the queen of the Atheists, of the Agnostics, of the entire world.  The symbolism of the painting was discussed and the floor opened for questions.

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