Heart and Mind United

Participating in the programme as a Fellow was probably one of the most rewarding and worthwhile things I have done in quite some time. Where to start? The carefully and thoughtfully crafted programme and coursework, the depth and intellectual rigour of the material we were given to study, the wonderful and thought-provoking lectures delivered by people who were not only experts in their field but possessed such fantastic ability to communicate their subject with so much genuine warmth and enthusiasm and in such as way as to inspire further study and engagement with the themes. It was also so humbling and endlessly fascinating to hear other people's stories and experiences on the retreat, at the Saturday morning lectures in the discussion groups and in the triplet. I am so grateful to everyone I encountered for the level of their participation - my triplet, my mentor Judith, and Stuart and his team for the brilliant coordination and organisation of the whole programme. It all appeared so seamless - but there is no doubting the huge amount of sacrificial effort that goes into producing such an excellent course. I was left wanting more - in the sense that I was keen to revisit some of the material to better grasp it and plumb the depths more thoroughly. I have always felt that I needed a more directed and intentional means of understanding faith and the programme certainly delivered on that but, more importantly, it 'warmed my heart', encouraged me to do and to be better, to actively seek God and his will and rejoice in the simple (and yet barely comprehensible) fact that, as Jerry Root so eloquently said, 'God loves you!'. Thank you CSLI - the benefits of participating will extend far beyond the year of the programme