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Begin with the Heart

Following last year's Emerging Christianity Conference

Action and Contemplation UK presents

"BEGIN WITH THE HEART"

A New Way of Seeing: A New Way of Being

Presented by

Daniel O'Leary, priest, speaker & author

with Maggie Roux, Margaret Siberry and Adrian Scott

Friday 2nd September - (registration from 2pm) to Sunday 4th September 2011 (lunchtime)

(exact programme details to follow)

at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire DE55 1AU

Our hearts long to be free; to experience more joy, more hope and more courage.
The aim of the conference is to provide, through talks, poetry, film and story, an experience of this real-life transformation.

‘BEGIN WITH THE HEART’ CONFERENCE 2011

‘God in the midst, the mess and the mystery.’ (Richard Rohr)

The theme and focus of this conference is ‘experiencing the grace of incarnation’. The grace to perceive God’s universal presence, to believe and experience it, is often called ‘the sacramental imagination’. This experience is our calling, and can transform our lives; we are called to recognise God in everything that happens, in the circumstances of our daily existence, in all that exists.

It may not be easy to seek, find and unmask ‘God in the midst, the mess and the mystery’ of our lives (Richard Rohr). It may mean a profound shift in our perception of God, of creation, in our way of looking at things, in our own inner self-awareness. Yet this is to explore the heart of the mystery, hidden deep within our own hearts.

The Conference will aim to provide an experience, through poetry, film and story, of the implications of Incarnation, of the first Christmas, of the fleshing of God – and of the real-life transformations that happen when we surrender to this sacred vision of life. To grasp the rich essence of this vision, and to make it our own, we need to tap into the imagination and creativity at the depths of our soul. This will help us recognise the gold in the rubble of life, divining ‘the dearest freshness deep down things’, and discover the invisible God in the utter ordinariness of each day.

All our experiences are the experiences of God within us; all our human stories are divine stories too. God is revealed and experienced within the material world of our senses and our daily lives, in everything that can be called human, in the heart of creation itself. Join us on this journey, and explore your own unique experience of precious and personal moments when you have sensed God’s presence.

In the words of Richard Rohr,

‘Material reality itself, my limited and sometimes misinterpreted experience, become the revelatory place for God within me, and yet always beyond me.’

‘The Real Self cannot be given to us and it cannot be taken away. Do you know why? Because we have it already, and it’s largely a matter of awakening to it.’

‘What makes a thing sacred or profane is precisely whether we live on the surface of things or not. Everything is profane if you live on the surface of it; everything is sacred if you go to the depths of it, even your sin. So the division, for the mystic, is not between sacred and secular things, but between superficial things and things at their depth – what Karl Rahner called ‘the mysticism of ordinary life’.

About the Teachers:

Daniel O’Leary is a priest, writer and speaker. His life is now devoted to discovering, promoting and nourishing in people, a life-transforming spirituality of the heart.

Maggie Roux is Associate Principal Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University College. One of Maggie’s specialities is spirituality and film.

Margaret Siberry is CAFOD Manager for Leeds Diocese. Margaret, a teacher, is committed to working with others to establish justice and peace around the world.

Adrian Scott is a Yorkshire poet, a retreat-giver and a spiritual director. He is trained in male psychology and helps to run Men’s Rites of Passage in the UK and Ireland.

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