What Is Sacred To You?

In a society that values wealth over wisdom, ambition over contentment, and status over authenticity, many people lose track of the sacredness in their lives—and how they suffer in its absence. But what does sacred mean? Is faith needed in order to understand what is sacred? Is the sacred personal or religious, or both? Is it confined to rarefied and esoteric spaces and things? Or is it ubiquitous and part of our workaday lives? According to Mark Matousek, the essence of sacredness is the key to meaning in our lives. He writes, “When we touch the sacred, we come alive, regardless of how and where we find it.”

In this six-week course, Journey to the Sacred: A Six-Week Writing Pilgrimage, Mark Matousek will guide you in discovering your own sense of the sacred. Each lesson begins with reflections from Mark—written in his characteristically piquant, frank, and searching style—that will open your heart and stir your own reflections.

Your responses to the writing prompts in Journey to the Sacred may surprise you—and reveal more than you might imagine about how you experience life, what you want from yourself and others, where you are wounded and in need of healing, and how deeply—or haltingly—you are able to love. Journey to the Sacred will sharpen your awareness and awaken your senses to what is marvelous, mysterious, and transformational in the world.

What you will explore in Journey to the Sacred:

● In Lesson One, “What is Sacred?,” Mark invites you to define what you currently find sacred in your life.

● In Lesson Two, “The Role of Disgust,” you are introduced to the link between the moral emotion of disgust and the need for sacredness in human evolution.

● The contrast between “Soul and Spirit” as spiritual orientations is illuminated in Lesson Three.

● Lesson Four is an overview of “Beginners Mind” as a practice for seeing each moment of life through sacramental eyes.

● “The Language of Emotions” is the topic of Lesson Five, explaining how language is linked to sacredness, and story is linked to personal meaning.

● Finally, in Lesson Six, Mark invites you to consider “The Purpose of Wonder” and the role of awe and elevation in the process of human enlightenment.

In Journey to the Sacred, like all of the home study courses, Mark writes out of his own wisdom and experience, ripened over more than 35 years of spiritual seeking, writing, and facing his own life challenges. In his reflections, he is unstinting in his honesty, and he encourages you to be as forthcoming and self-questioning as he is—always with the understanding that this is the path to true self-acceptance and your own wisdom. In a very real sense, Journey to the Sacred is a way of engaging with Mark, and your own powers of discovery, much as you would in an in-person workshop.

Home Study Courses are ideal for people who want to accelerate their learning curve, deepen self-awareness, and explore substantial issues within the framework of a carefully designed curriculum.

How the Course Works

The lessons are delivered via email. The first email will include a video welcome from Mark and guidance in the Writing to Awaken method of self-inquiry, in addition to the first lesson in PDF format. Subsequent lessons will arrive every seven days for the remainder of the course. Students are encouraged to do the lessons in order, taking no more than a week to complete each one. This creates a learning momentum that will serve you well when working solo.

“I hope you’ll allow me to use this course to help guide you toward your creative potential.  I believe that you will enjoy not only the process but the outcome as well.

Happy writing,