PrairieFire Foundations

The Metaphor

In a healthy prairie, one of the most complex yet balanced ecosystems on earth, hundreds of plants
and animals exist together harmoniously. The perennial grasses and flowers native to the prairie grow deep, hold water, crowd out weeds, improve the soil by providing nutrients and contribute to the innate beauty of the land.

Before the appearance of humans, lightning, wind and hoards of grazing nomadic, hoofed herbivores managed the prairie. In modern times, we manage the prairie through controlled burns. These fires eliminate invasive weeds not native to the prairie that choke out healthy flowering perennials. In the process, prairie fires clear the way for long-dormant seeds to come to life, germinate and grow. The variety and lushness of new growth resulting from a burn is often two to threefold from the previous year. Only native perennials that have been the basis for a healthy prairie for eons will survive the prairie fire.

Like the prairie, the human being is a complex system. Within the human condition disturbances
can affect our natural spiritual balance. Fear, anger, or worry about our family, professional and work
demands, societal expectations, cultural conditioning and even the state of the world can constrict
awareness of our innate spiritual nature that flowers in its oneness with creation. In our life journey,
it is necessary to periodically “burn away” that which blocks the growth of the deeper seed of the
Divine Presence within all of us. This growth restores natural balance and invites us to renewal, flowering, freedom and a joyful life.

The Program

We live in a world where we are taught little about spirituality and our personal spiritual natures. We
go through our days in what Thomas Keating calls “ordinary psychological awareness.” A chief
characteristic of this type of awareness is that it looks to the outside world for validation and
meaning. Family, institutional, societal and cultural dictums teach us how we “should” be in the
world, and yet subtly and powerfully keep us from awareness of our deeper spiritual selves. We live
unconsciously as if on automatic pilot with little interior awareness. We behave and become
according to what we have been taught, and we judge others who have been taught differently.

At some point in our lives, something often happens to move us into a state of awakening, making
us question the wisdom of living out of this ordinary psychological awareness. This movement can
take many forms. Perhaps we find we don’t like who we’ve become or the values out of which we’ve
been living. We may find that the job, the house, the possessions, or the lifestyle that were supposed
to make us happy don’t. Perhaps we have an inner sense that something is just not right, that something important is lacking in our lives. Maybe a crisis, a loss or a betrayal has shaken the
foundation of our lives in ways we have never experienced.

Whether spontaneously suffered or intentionally chosen, often such events powerfully draw us from
the lure of the outer into a new awareness of our inner spiritual being – and deeper still, into awareness of that Presence in whose image each of us is created. This process leads to authentic
healing. Just as the prairie recovers or heals following a prairie fire, new life springs forth in us.

PrairieFire, a two-year program of spiritual renewal, deepening and formation, provides a safe and
sacred environment to allow the clearing of our inner terrain to promote new growth. In the safety of
a community that provides support, resources and containment, we explore together our ways of
thinking, our notions about God, and negative attitudes such as attachments, aversions, judgments,
competition and expectations. We will discover how to remove the barriers of harmful thinking that
keep us from knowing the truth of our divine natures as made visible in our ordinary lives.

The result promises to be a deeper level of acceptance of self and others; a closer relationship with
the Divine; increased congruence as our lives more fully express the wonder of oneness with the whole of creation; and a new commitment to live in heightened awareness of the presence and activity of the Divine accompanying us in the holiness of everyday life.

PrairieFire offers an optional third-year practicum for those who seek to continue deepening their contemplative listening skills and to discern their personal ministries in the world. Meeting all of the requirements of the practicum will lead to a certificate of completion in spiritual direction training.

Goals and Objectives

• To build an intentional community where participants will find the safety and structure
  needed to nurture and revitalize their souls.
• To provide participants with grounding in the contemplative Christian tradition with a focus on
  Benedictine spirituality.
• To facilitate experiences of contemplative spiritual practices and listening skills for deepening one’s relationship with self, others and the Divine Presence.
• To foster discernment that leads each participant to a way of being in the world, characterized by contemplation, non-reactivity, prayerful listening and emerging expressions of one’s true self.