Transformative Prayer:
Exploring the Uncharted Territory of your Interior Life
This class has ended. Recordings and outlines of the lessons are provided below.
Please note that the production value of these recordings is approximately $0. They are unedited… I haven’t even listened to them. Originally, I only intended to offer this class in person, but because so many people inquired about listening to it remotely, the easiest thing for me to do was upload the lessons here. I apologize for any lack of quality!
Mary Shaffer, Instructor
When: Monday evenings, Sept 15th-Oct 27th, 2025 (7 weeks), 6:30-8:30pm
Where: St. Anne's in Somerset (141 Church Hill Rd, Somerset, WI 54025)
Who: Adults (or older teens accompanied by a parent) who want to grow in prayer (Christian/Catholic)
What: A class that teaches you how to inhabit your inner self, allow God to transform its dark places, and grow in interior freedom
Cost: Pay as you're able, suggested donation $70-$140
This 7-week class is designed to help you enter into the "little world" (Bonaventure) of your soul, that unique and unrepeatable interior universe whose landscape can only truly be known and inhabited by you—and God, if you let him in. This class is especially for those who feel stuck in their prayer or struggle to connect deeply with God, but it is for everyone who wants to grow in a real, intimate, transformative relationship with God. Each week, a teaching on the interior life will be followed by discussion, leading into 30 minutes of silent prayer where we "practice" the principle we just learned. Synthesizing Thomistic anthropology with Bonaventure, personalism, and patristic and mystical treatments of the interior life, the class is designed to be simple enough that anyone can understand it without formal study of theology.
6:30pm - intro/social time
6:45pm - lecture and discussion
7:55pm - break
8:00pm - 30 minutes of silent prayer
Week 1: "The Kingdom of God is Within You"
Week 2: Consenting or refusing to be the self that I am
Week 3: "The Egg" - aka my dynamic map of the human person based on Aquinas and friends
Week 4: Exploring the Interior Universe - a journey of the mind (hopefully to God)
Week 5: Grace and Imagination - letting God shape my interior universe
Week 6: The Head and the Heart
Week 7: Wounds, Walls, and Interior Healing
Mary Shaffer is a spiritual director and retreat director who loves to teach on the interior life. Her undergraduate background in theatre and her graduate background in theology have united in a passion for contemplating the mystery of the human person made in the image of God. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Missed the Boat Theatre, and author of Wick and Arrow, a fairy tale for grownups.