What is the Kingdom of God like?
And to what shall I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that someone
took and sowed in the garden;
it grew and became a tree,
and the birds of the air made nests
in its branches.
— Luke 13: 18-19

"When rightly understood, the parables help us to see how extraordinary a wisdom teacher Jesus really was, and how revolutionary, in the best sense of the word, was the content of what he taught and to which he bore witness by his life and death.

"These insights cohere particularly well with the actual experience of people on the spiritual journey. When contemplative prayer is seriously embraced, we come upon [a] lived reality … the reversal of expectations, the gradual and often painful liberation from emotional programs for happiness, and the increasing discovery of the kingdom of God in the ordinary and everyday."
— Thomas Keating in the preface to Meditations on the Parables of Jesus

This online course will be based on teaching excerpts from Thomas Keating's book, Meditations on the Parables of Jesus, which he recently picked as his "best book." In each quarter of this e-course, you can expect:

  • We will introduce one parable with an audio link from Who Is God? with Fr. Keating speaking on the parable.
  • We will post commentaries by the retreat leaders, woven with other voices from the contemplative tradition.
  • We will engage in the practice of Visio Divina with the sacred art of Nicholas Roerich in order to enlarge the meaning of the parable that arises from the silent language of the heart in our emotional awareness.

Partial scholarships are available through Contemplative Outreach. Please inquire at clp@coutreach.org.

4 CEHs for chaplains available.

To register for this e-course, click on the "Subscribe" button below.

Available On-Demand
(choose your own start date and frequency)

$49.95

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