School of Wisdom & Practical Spirituality

WELCOME  To All Seekers

The St. Mark’s School of Wisdom is open to the curious and the serious – to all seekers of Christian wisdom and spirituality. Our assumption is that everyone needs to find their own way, their own way.  Each course and each spiritual practice is part of a transformational journey, a journey we are all on whether we are conscious of it or not. All are welcome to join us in learning and practicing the spiritual path that Christianity has to offer. 

Monday night Schedule

5:30 Evening Prayer in the church (for all who wish to join us)
6:00 Dinner in the Parish Hall
6:45 Courses (see link in the menu bar to the right)

PURPOSE  Rediscovering Christian Spirituality

On the one hand, the post-modern, secular, consumer society in which we live has marginalized religion and trivialized meaning.  On the other hand, it has triggered a renewed interest in spirituality and in the deeper wisdom of ancient and profound religious traditions.

Like all of the other major religious traditions, Christianity itself is undergoing a death and rebirth.  The “post-Christian” world is nothing more, perhaps, than the experience of the death of a nominal, superficial form of religion that boils down to following external customs and being a good person.  This safe, irrelevant, watered-down version of Christianity, particularly in the West, has finally lost its integrity in the eyes of the world.

Our fascinations with anything Eastern, and exploitation by a myriad of spiritual “gurus,” are signs of our hunger for deeper wisdom, deeper experience, and deeper spirituality that has been part of the Christian heritage from the beginning.  The rebirth of Christianity is a rediscovery of its ancient wisdom, its mystical power, and its transforming vision.
 
The purpose of St. Mark’s School of Wisdom and Practical Spirituality is the rediscovery of this wisdom, power and vision, the reclaiming of our own deep spiritual tradition, and the communication of this deep tradition to all who are searching for it.

METHODOLOGY  Learning with All our Minds, Hearts, and Souls

Intellectual study, by itself, does not lead to the secret of life. Learning wisdom requires the use of multiple powers of perception, most of which are undeveloped in us. Wisdom is “intuitive knowledge” which is apprehended with the inner senses through experience, prayer, contemplation, and other spiritual aids.

To experience the consciousness of Christ’s experience of God, we must develop spiritual eyes to see
and spiritual ears to hear the reality (the Kingdom) that lies beneath, behind and within this physical reality.
To grow into our complete humanity – to share in the wisdom, strength, vision, love, and compassion of God -- is to learn with all our mind, with all our heart, and with all our soul.
 
The methodology of the School of Wisdom is to combine and balance the learning of theorea (content, theory) and praxis (experience, practice). Like learning to walk by balancing on one foot and then the other, we learn to balance ourselves on the feet of theorea and then praxis.