Welcome to the Central Connecticut Living Flame II
Fall 2015 - Spring 2016 Program

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Latest News as of 5/7/2016
Approaching Pentecost...

The final session of Living Flame 2 will be meeting Saturday, 5/14/2016.  We look forwarding to joining together in Contemplative Community again for this final session! We hope that many of you will be joining us for Contemplative Enrichment Days starting in October 2016 as Holy Family Retreat Center formally begins to embrace the Christian Contemplative Tradition.

The topic of our next Living Flame is The Dark Night of the Spirit. Our Contemplative Outreach Presenter is Susan Komis who joins us from St Louis, MO. For those of you who attended last year's Living Flame 1, Susan will be familiar to you. She presented Dark Night of Sense last March. Here's Susan's brief biography:

​Susan Komis has served Contemplative Outreach since 1990. She began as a volunteer for the St. Louis, MO Chapter. Appointed as Coordinator for the St. Louis, Missouri region in 1994, she served in that capacity through 1999 and is still involved with Contemplative Outreach of St. Louis as a commissioned presenter.

A member of the Faculty of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd, Susan serves as Director of Chapter Programs & Services (CPS) to support Coordinators and Contact Persons throughout the Contemplative Outreach spiritual community. She assists Chapters by making on-site visitations and offering programs for leadership enrichment and Chapter development.
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In other servant-leader roles, Susan serves as a staff person for numerous Contemplative Outreach retreats, currently serves as a mentor to other servant-leaders, and continues to develop leadership formation programs.
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Susan is a certified Pastoral Minister in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and has worked in Adult Faith Development and various other ministries including spiritual direction and interspiritual dialogue.
Click here to see the weekend weather forecast to West Hartford, CT.
Additional Recommended Reading from our Presenters: ​​
Our preferred meeting location is in the Center Building First Floor Conference room and often dine in the Main Dining Hall.

You can park in any lot and please enter through the Main Holy Family Entrance as shown here on the map.
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(Click image to enlarge)

General Information On Living Flame in CT

The Living Flame program is a two year Contemplative Formation Experience that has been offered by Contemplative Outreach since 1993. We are blessed to have the opportunity to offer Year 2 of this program for the first time in the Central Connecticut area. We are graced with over 35 participants in this program from various parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

This Contemplative Formation program includes seven full-day Saturday sessions offering in-depth spiritual study presented by commissioned presenters from the various Contemplative Outreach Service Teams located around the United States. Designed to teach the vital conceptual background needed to support a faithful practice of Centering Prayer, the program also:
  • offers encouragement and support in a small community setting;
  • heightens the awareness of the purification process;
  • helps discern when psychological skills can be helpful tools;
  • and provides the opportunity to give and receive spiritual companionship.

All sessions will be held at the Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center, 303 Tunxis Rd, West Hartford, CT 06107. Based on other ongoing retreats, our meeting locations will vary. You will find a facilities map here. Participants can contact Kasia Owczarek (860-760-9799) at the Holy Family Retreat Center a week in advance to arrange accommodations on an availability basis if they would like this option. There are also hotels available close by.

The dates, topics and presenters for the Central Connecticut Living Flame program are:
  • October 10, 2015 Reclaiming Our Roots - Rickey Cotton - Tampa Bay, FL
           The Contemplative Heritage in Christianity, Desert Ammas/Abbas
  • November 21, 2015 Lectio Divina 2 - Mike Potter - Memphis, TN
           Monastic model, The Four Senses of Scripture
  • January 9, 2016 Contemplative Living - Steve Standiford, - Westchester County, NY
           Contemplative attitudes, Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit
  • February 20, 2016 The Forgiveness Prayer - Therese Saulnier - Bayonne, NJ
            The prayer and the process, Reconciliation
  • March 19, 2016 Soul Friending - Cherry Haisten - Seattle, WA
            As individuals and as groups, The art of communication, The gift of listening
  • April 16, 2016 The Psychological Experience of Centering Prayer - Jim McElroy - St Louis, MO  
          What years of practice may look like, The process of unloading
  • May 14, 2016 The Dark Night of the Spirit - Susan Komis, St Louis, MO
          Purification, Divine Union, The present moment

Here are all the current biographies of our Living Flame 2 Presenters.

We reserved April 2.2016 as a backup date in the event that one of the sessions needs to be postponed due to weather or other reasons beyond our control.

The standard format for the day is as follows:
  • 8:30 - Sign-in opens at meeting space.
  • 9:00 -  Welcome and Breakfast snacks (30 mins)
  • 9:30 -  Prayer, Community Check-in and Introduction to theme of that day  (20 mins)
  • 9:50 - Centering Prayer (30 mins)
  • 10:20 - Contemplative Walk* (Optional)  (10 mins)
  • 10:30 - Centering Prayer (30 mins)
  • 11:00 - Silent Break (15 mins)
  • 11:15 - Teaching Conference  (1 hr)
  • 12:15 - Early break before Lunch - leaves time for Q&A
  • 12:30 - Full Lunch (with or without conversation) (1 hr)
  • 1:30 - Teaching Conference  (1 hr )
  • 2:30 - Centering Prayer (30 mins) 
  • 3:00 - Silent Break (15 mins)
  • 3:15 - Small Group (1 hr) 
  • 4:15 - Community Check-out, Survey and Prayer (15 mins) -  ask questions / share closing insights with the Large Group
  • 4:30 - Depart 
*The contemplative walk is a slow, continuous walk used between Centering Prayer periods. The continuous nature of the walk indicates that there is no pause between steps. It is used to release body tensions experienced in Centering Prayer and to provide a space for body movement.  It is also an excellent reminder that we can be as present to God’s presence and action in our active life as we are in our Centering Prayer.

We treat the entire morning Centering Prayer Period (9:50 - 11:00) as an extended time of Contemplative prayer:
  • 3 gongs
  • Opening Prayer
  • 1 gong 
  • 30 minutes of Centering Prayer
  • 1 gong 
  • Contemplative Walk
  • 1 going 
  • 30 minutes of Centering Prayer
  • 3 gongs

All participants are assigned to small groups for a more intimate experience of sharing during the seven sessions. The makeup of the small groups will remain unchanged for the duration of the Living Flame program. Over time members will bond in the Spirit. The guidelines for small group faith sharing are:
  • Practicing the art of listening
  • The groups are not problem solving sessions
  • Confidentiality is essential
  • Freedom to share or not to share
  • Give each participant equal time

The Presenter of the day will give the small groups one or two focusing questions to keep the group on the topic. We are currently working on Small Group membership and facilitators. Your facilitator will contact you and the members of your small group by email prior to the start of the program.  Facilitators for Living Flame 2 are:
We will ask that each participant turn in an evaluation form after each session. You can obtain the Living Flame evaluation forms here.
If you have any questions or comments about this program please feel free to contact Mike Smoolca, at [email protected] or by phone at 860-798-8992. 

You may also fill out the Comment Form to submit your question or comment and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

    Central CT Living Flame II
    Fall 2015 - Spring 2016 Comment