Prayer and the 5 Stages of Healing Study Guide

As you work with the material in Prayer and the Five Stages of Healing over the next several weeks or months, we recommend that you keep a journal in which you record your insights, experiences, and learnings. You may draw upon these as you respond to the questions below. Those marked with an asterisk are required for those in the educational/ordination programs, and the others are recommended, though optional.

INTRODUCTION (pp. ix-xvi)

*How do you respond to Ron’s statement: "When people ask me how to heal themselves, I tell them to pray for others to be healed"?

For a week or longer, pray for others rather than yourself.
Note your observations about the experience.

How can you 'pray without ceasing?"

Set up your own meditation space. Describe it. How does it enhance your daily prayer and meditation?

*What has been your understanding of God in the past? Is there a need to heal that understanding? As you work with Ron’s material, note any changes in your understanding and experience of God.

Reflect on how your religious/faith tradition (or the absence of one) has affected your search for the Divine.

*Respond to Ron’s statement: "The most important thing is that you feel free to believe whatever empowers you to be more loving."

*Pray this prayer for at least a week: "Here I am. Do with me as you will." Does anything shift for you as a result?

Part I: THE FIVE STAGES OF HEALING CHAPTER 1:
THE PRODIGAL SON AND THE FIVE STAGES OF HEALING

*After reflecting on the five stages of healing, which one most closely describes where you are now in your spiritual journey?

CHAPTER 2 - THE AWAKENING STAGE

*When did the awakening stage begin for you? Describe your journey through this stage.

*Practice the meditation and chant Ron describes on pp. 37-40. What affirmations and words are you drawn to?

CHAPTER 3 - THE PURIFICATION STAGE

*Have you experienced the purification stage? If so, describe
your journey through this stage.

*React to Ron’s statement: “A large part of progressing through the purification stage consists of recognizing that you have to learn how to handle only two emotions, love and fear” (p. 43)

Have you practiced the spiritual disciplines of simplicity, silence, and solitude? How have they led to surrender? If so, in what ways?

*Practice the daily examen for the next week. Describe the experience.

CHAPTER 4 - THE ILLUMINATION STAGE

*Have you experienced the illumination stage? Describe your journey through this stage. How have you experienced insights, intuition, and creativity in this stage?

*Practice chanting the names of God, followed by prayer and devotional reading. How does the chanting enhance your spiritual practice and feeling of connection to God?

CHAPTER 5 - THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

*Have you experienced the dark night of the soul? What did it feel like? If you have passed through this stage, what brought you through it?

Have you experienced more than one dark night period? Ron reminds us that dark night periods can be as short as a few days and as long as a few years. How were subsequent experiences different from the first?

What kind of impact do you think the dominant culture you live in had on your experience of the dark night?

*Practice the exercise “God is” (pp. 75-77). Does it help you move out of the darkness?

CHAPTER 6 - THE LURE OF NEGATIVE ENERGIES:
DEMONS AND ELEMENTALS

*How have you experienced negative energies?

*Practice Ron’s prayers of protection and deliverance (pp.90-93). How did they help?

CHAPTER 7 - DIVINE UNION

*Have you reached the stage of divine union? How do (would) you know when you are in this stage?

*Do you agree with Ron’s statement: “This is a stage that compels us to action” (p.93)? Explain.

What is a contemporary definition of a mystic?

*Who have been your most significant teachers, mentors, and/or spiritual guides who have led or are leading you to this stage? How have they helped you in your journey with God?

*What part does forgiveness play in divine union with God?

*Practice regularly the exercise “How can I help?” (pp. 100-101). How does this exercise affect you? How have you acted upon your guidance? What has prevented you, if anything, from acting?

Part II: THE WAYS OF PRAYER

CHAPTER 8 - PRAYER IN THE FIVE STAGES OF HEALING

*Describe the evolution of prayer through the five stages of healing. How has your prayer life reflected these stages?

CHAPTER 9 - THE CHAKRAS, YOGA
AND THE STAGES OF PRAYER AND HEALING

Consider practicing yoga, Tai Chi, walking meditations, dance, etc. on a regular basis. If you have been using one of these forms as a spiritual practice, what effects you have noticed?

Try chanting/toning the vibration of each of the seven main chakras, using a CD such as “Chakra Chants” by Jonathan Goldman. Do you feel that your energy centers are more open and attuned as a result?

*Ron says, “the key to our spiritual devotion is the opening of the "heart chakra” (p. 119). Has your experience confirmed this? In what ways?

Comment on Ron’s interpretation of Teresa of Avila’s seven rooms of God’s heavenly mansion (pp. 124?27).

*Practice the exercise “Awakening the Heart Center” several times a day for at least a week. Note any effects from doing this.

*Practice at least once the exercise “Letting the Light of God Shine Through the Chakras.” Note your responses at the time and again later.

CHAPTER 10 - PRAYING IN THE ENERGY OF THE SAINTS

*Prayerfully select one or two saints or mystics whom Ron discusses or to whom you are drawn. Practice using one of their prayers or meditations regularly. Do you feel closer to their energy or guided by them as a result?

CHAPTER 11 - SILENCE AND SOLITUDE

Make a silent retreat of at least one day, whether at your home,
a natural setting, or a retreat center. Note your awareness, the prayers you create, any guidance you received, or anything that came up for you during that time. What was the value of this silence to you?

*Practice the discipline of silence for at least a few minutes daily. How does this practice deepen your communion with God and with the rest of your life?

CHAPTER 12 - INVOKING THE SACRED

*Write a summary of all the ways you are currently invoking the sacred in your life. In what ways could you increase and/or deepen your experience of the sacred in your daily life?

Create a medicine bundle or blessing altar for yourself with several sacred objects. Ask your spiritual companions to contribute an item they have blessed for you. How do these objects enhance your experience of the sacred?

CHAPTER 13 - FORGIVENESS - PREREQUISITE TO PRAYER

*Do you have people, situations, and institutions you have not fully forgiven? As Ron suggests, meditate on God as unconditional love (pp. 201-203). Visualize each of your “unforgivens” as surrounded by and infused with God’s love. Come back to these images as often as you need to in order to let go of your negative feelings for these objects. Record the results of doing this.

*Practice the exercises Ron recommends for accepting and forgiving yourself. What changes did you note in yourself or your feelings toward others as a result?

CONCLUSION

*As a result of completing this study, note your key learnings and ways in which you feel you have become more loving. In what other ways has this study changed you and your life?

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