Catholic · Emmaus course
Grace Through Weakness: Psychological Struggle and Spiritual Transformation in the Lives of the Saints
Grace works through the actual person.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR — psychologist and Franciscan friar — takes you inside the lives of saints who struggled psychologically and grew spiritually. A counter-intuitive, profoundly consoling course for counselors, spiritual directors, and any Catholic who has wondered whether their brokenness disqualifies them from the spiritual journey.
NBCC CE · 2.5 clock hours · Human Growth and Development (HGD)
With Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R.
- Length
- 2 hr 30 min
- Lessons
- 4
- Level
- Intermediate
- Version
- Catholic
- Price
- Free
Help me understand that my struggles do not separate me from God — that there is a path for someone like me.
About this course
What if psychological struggle is not the obstacle to holiness — but one of the roads through which God works most deeply?
In this course, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR — Franciscan friar, licensed psychologist, and spiritual director of over four decades — takes us inside the lives of saints whose psychological histories were anything but tidy. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, was a dependent, psychosomatically symptomatic child before the grace of God began its work in her. St. Benedict Joseph Labre showed symptoms consistent with serious mental illness and could not sustain ordinary religious life — yet he was recognized as a saint by the poor of Rome before the Church caught up. Leon Bloy's simple, demanding counsel — 'Go home and pray' — converted one of the greatest Catholic philosophers of the twentieth century.
This course gives you: a framework for reading psychological struggle and spiritual growth together without reducing one to the other; case studies of saints whose lives illuminate pathology and holiness; pastoral and clinical tools for accompanying people who are both psychologically complex and spiritually serious; a theological foundation grounded in the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person.
Offered for 2.50 NBCC CE clock hours in the content area of Human Growth and Development (HGD), this course meets the professional needs of licensed mental health counselors while serving the formation needs of spiritual directors, pastoral workers, and serious Catholic adult learners.
Who this course is for
Parish learners and adult Catholics
'Help me understand that my struggles do not separate me from God — that there is a path for someone like me.'
Fr. Groeschel on the saints who struggled — and what their struggles teach us about our own.
Spiritual directors and pastoral workers
'Give me a framework for accompanying people whose psychological lives are complex.'
A practical and theological resource for spiritual directors who accompany people with complex psychological histories.
Mental health counselors (NBCC CE)
'Expand my clinical framework to include the genuine spiritual dimension of my religiously committed clients.'
2.50 NBCC HGD clock hours from a framework that finally takes your clients' religious lives seriously.
Also for DMU alumni and existing LLI learners (everyone who has completed 'Spiritual Passages' or adjacent courses).
From the course syllabus
What if psychological struggle is not the obstacle to holiness — but one of the roads through which God works most deeply?
In this course, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR — Franciscan friar, licensed psychologist, and spiritual director of over four decades — takes us inside the lives of saints whose psychological histories were anything but tidy. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, was a dependent, psychosomatically symptomatic child before the grace of God began its work in her. St. Benedict Joseph Labre showed symptoms consistent with serious mental illness and could not sustain ordinary religious life — yet he was recognized as a saint by the poor of Rome before the Church caught up. Leon Bloy's simple, demanding counsel — 'Go home and pray' — converted one of the greatest Catholic philosophers of the twentieth century.
This course gives you: a framework for reading psychological struggle and spiritual growth together without reducing one to the other; case studies of saints whose lives illuminate pathology and holiness; pastoral and clinical tools for accompanying people who are both psychologically complex and spiritually serious; a theological foundation grounded in the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person.
Curriculum
-
Module 1
Grace Through Weakness
- 1.Lesson 1: The Wounded Path
- 2.Lesson 2: Sanctity in Brokenness
- 3.Lesson 3: Beyond Dull Psychology
- 4.Post-Test
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