Sangre de Cristo Center
410 State Road 592
Santa Fe NM 87506 USA
Phone: 505.983.7291
Fax: 505.983.6963
info@sangredecristo.org

Please Note: The input of the program of refoundation changes from session to session based on speaker availability and ongoing updating of topics.

• Staff Life Reflections: Each member of the spiritual direction staff will introduce themselves to the group, sharing their life story.

• Liturgy and Our Community Prayer: Discussion on how to plan meaningful Eucharistic liturgies and community prayer.

• Spiritual Direction Orientation:We have all lived with God's promptings and journeying with us through our life's experiences. Using a model for spiritual direction that takes us through life's meanderings we begin to see spiritual direction not so much as progress toward perfection but a process where God accompanies us through life's unfolding mystery.

• Small Group Orientation: Introduction to the nature and purpose of the groups that meet regularly during the session. A focus on the dynamics of self-disclosure and listening prepares participants for the interaction of sharing personal experiences, beliefs and values with the members of their group.

• Ecology of Sangre de Cristo: Sangre de Cristo Center is located in a unique environment whose geologic formations offer a wide array of flora and fauna. We will explore the various dimensions both inside and outside to better understand the place in which Sangre is located.

• The Personal Journal: An introductory workshop in the practice of journal-keeping as a method of personal and religious growth; and as a way of using the content of our life as the content of our prayer; a move toward a deeper integration of the experience of the religious minister with the Gospel call to life.

• Introduction to Creation Spirituality: Our theology, language, and worldview are all affected by the story in which we are situated. A brief overview of the stories in which we find ourselves will be explored inviting us to live questions and dwell in mystery.

• Dreams and Spiritual Growth: Approaching our dreams while still preserving their mystery. Discovering self-actualizing methods to find meaning for our lives through our dreams and thereby become more grounded in our life journey.

• On Grief: A necessary season in mid-life for attending to one's inner life by processing the many losses, the letting go, the making peace through forgiveness and reconciliation with what is.

• Celibate Sexuality And Intimacy: Exploring The Landscape: We begin by exploring some of the significant paradigmatic shifts in our religious perceptions of human sexuality. Since we believe that grace builds on nature, these sessions will demonstrate that the foundation for a healthy celibacy must be constructed on good and adequate knowledge of human sexuality in general and of one's sexual self in particular. An integrated celibacy will include an understanding and acceptance of our bodies, including their unique hormonal makeup and neuroanatomy. Learning to live with and embrace the meaning of our sexual feelings, drives and fantasies, as well as our sexual orientation, contribute to living the celibate life without repression or compulsion. To mature in the celibate life, we learn that intimacy cannot be optional, and that for our commitment to remain secure, it must be anchored in the cultivation of a deep, spiritual core identity.

• Enneagram: The Enneagram is a personality theory in which there are nine distinct types. This workshop gives a basic understanding of each of the personalities and aids the participant in self-identification. The Enneagram has both psychological and spiritual dimensions, as well as theory of growth and personal transformation.

• Exploring Life's Transitions: Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives: This session is based on the notion that all life transitions begin with an ending and hopefully end in a new beginning. It is the between time that often stops us and where we find ourselves stuck as we move from one place to another. Our time will be spent looking at the changes and trying to understand how we move through this process. Our own experiences will be the stuff of the session as we reflect how the process interfaces with one's own experience.

• Praying Our Feelings: An introduction to understanding a theory of relating to our feelings/emotions and of using the awareness of our feelings as part of the content of our prayer.

• Directed Retreat: An opportunity to deepen one's personal relationship with the Lord, especially in the perspective of this "time apart" for the Sangre program as an overview of one's life, and facilitated by scriptural prayer, silence, and individual direction. Eight days.

• Moved With Compassion: Toward A Spirituality Of Ministry: What does the story of the Good Samaritan have to teach us about a spirituality of ministry? Is it relevant? Can we see this story as a model of spirituality for ministry?

• Consecrated Life Into the Future: An exploration into the vowed life - its challenges and the renewal of vision called for in this new millennium. We will struggle with issues of relevance and mission: attempt to be honest as well as trust-filled as we embrace the future.

• Spirituality and Creative Self-Expression: Seeing With an Artist's Eye: In this segment of the Sangre experience we will explore the relationship between spirituality and looking at reality in a different way. A series of practical exercises will endeavor to get us out of our everyday mode of seeing and into seeing reality as an artist does.

• Belonging to the Universe: The New Cosmology And the Human: An exploration and celebration of the scientific, evolutionary cosmology and its implications for living a holistic spirituality. Special attention will be given to the three cosmic principles of differentiation, autopoiesis and communion.

• Doing Faithjustice: Drawing from the biblical, conciliar and episcopal sources, the unit will emphasize the connection between faith and justice, social analysis, key current issues, and a spirituality of social justice for personal, communal, and public life.

• Refocusing the Sangre Experience: To reflect on the Sangre experiences in light of the 100 days.

• Personal Solitude: Quietness and aloneness as a balance for the many forms of communication and sharing. The somewhat secluded location and a degree of withdrawal from previous involvement's support the overall atmosphere of recollection and privacy. Daily "quiet time," several "desert days" and "personal mornings" during the program point to the value of solitude.

• There are also occasional group-initiated seminars, varied liturgies, shared prayer and faith-sharing experiences, individual presentations on the Santa Fe environs. The multicultural aspects of northern New Mexico are both examined and visited to a limited extent. Some occasions for sharing the multicultural background of each group -- ordinarily from several countries, congregations, and dioceses -- are provided.

• The Center has an excellent up-to-date library; specializing in non-research types of theological studies, with some coverage of sociology, psychology, education, spiritual life, etc. There are also subscriptions to over thirty periodicals -- principally of theological, psychological, sociological and educational interest. Every effort is made to encourage serious reading, with a view to some significant updating and to the development of reading habits in service of a lifetime of ministry.