Restless Hearts in Search of Meaning: The Challenge of Educating in Hope

Course Overview:
Sooner or later all of us will experience some form of physical or moral suffering, professional failure, the death of loved one, a broken relationship, or simply the cumulative effect of daily setbacks. In those moments, the hopes we once fostered enter into crisis and can lead to an existential emptiness as we cannot fully understand the meaning of what we are going through. In this course, we will introduce several authors who can help us find answers to humanity’s deepest perplexities. As parents, it is important to be ready to give your children deep reasons for hope as they will experience age-old crises in ways we may not foresee.

About our Speaker: Fr. Javier del Castillo is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei. He was the chaplain at Northridge Prep from 2009 to 2013. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master's and Doctorate in Philosophy. In previous years, he has taught courses at Parent University on Aristotle, St. Augustine Confessions and the Gospel of St. John.

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Session 1: Romano Guardini’s Stages of Life. We will take a look at the definition of a “crisis” and how at every stage of life there is a specific crisis that can be overcome and viewed as an opportunity for personal growth.

Session 2: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search of Meaning. How is it that the strongest and most physically fit prisoners were not the ones who necessarily survived the Nazi atrocities of Auschwitz? As a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl shows us how to find meaning in suffering through love.

Session 3: C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed. C.S. Lewis takes us on a journey through the depths of suffering as he reflects on the death of his wife. We will ask the question why God allows us to suffer.

Session 4: Benedict XVI’s, Spe Salvi. In this monumental encyclical, Pope Benedict gives us the key to understand why modern man often loses hope. We will see how to avoid the pitfalls to which our children will be exposed.

Session 5: Josef Pieper’s Leisure the Basis of Culture. In this class, we will propose a culture in which we can find space and time to reflect not only in order to make sense of our perplexities, but also in order to excel and discover the highest and fullest way of being human.

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