Just under a decade ago, I met Fr. William Watson, the founder of the Sacred Story Institute in Seattle, WA.  When we met to discuss our mutual work, we realized that we had actually known one another, at least in passing, decades before when we were both at Gonzaga University in Spokane, he as a professor and administrator, and me as an instructor.  We also realized our mutual commitment to service, each from a different perspective–his as Catholic clergy and mine as a secular social philosopher who is Jewish.  Fr. Watson (“Bill”) and I became friends and colleagues quickly, and I shared with him the Catholic schools and communities around the country that I personally, and our Gurian Institute Trainers collectively, have enjoyed serving.

A few years ago, we began to work together when I was honored that Bill asked me to consult with him on a new project for teen boys and girls, True Heart.  Bill had already written and created a number of other successful books and programs for adults such as Forty Weeks and Sacred Story.  Now he wanted to bring the St. Ignatian (Jesuit) discernment process to teens and emerging adults, and he wanted to make sure the process worked for girls and boys, both.  Bill knew that boys and girls learn differently, and that their approach to internal spiritual growth, while sharing many similarities, also included profound differences.  Bill also knew that excessive digital life is harming our children’s brains, and he wanted to create a program that would help kids unplug.

This is where I came in.  Bill already had the structure and content for a brilliant program.  I helped only a little–making sure to bring practical strategies and insight to sex- and gender-specific aspects of the program, and by helping with the “unhooking.”  Over the period of about a year, Bill and I worked together.   In truth, my contribution was very small compared to what Bill created, but I want to say a big “thank you” to Bill and the Sacred Story Institute for letting me help.  The True Heart program is now ready for use, and I highly recommend it.  While it is Christ-centered and might, thus, mainly be used by Catholic and Christian youth, there is much in it for anybody from any creed or framework.

The Program does these things:

•  Helps Youth, Young Adults, and Leaders understand two fundamentally different directions one’s life might take – toward selflessness and God, or toward self-centeredness, which takes a person away from God
•  Helps youth, young adults, and emerging adults discover their “True Heart” (who they really are)
•  Provides Spiritual Exercises to establish a discipline that allow for unhooking from technology long enough to connect with God
•  Helps users discern small and big life choices at critical junctures in adolescence and emerging adulthood
•  Includes supplemental audio Meditations to practice Sacred Story Prayer
•  Makes available to users various Social Media Groups for support
•  Includes True Heart Practices that are designed for one-off studies or for running retreats
•  Provides powerful night meditations with which to encounter God, divine presence, and a true heart
•  Provides Christians with understanding and belief in Christ through the Blessed Sacrament.

Let me end this blog post with two comments, one from myself and one from a Christian practitioner.  I think they provide good detail on the program.  You can get more information and acquire the program on the Sacred Story website and here:  https://sacredstory.net/true-heart-young-adult-program/.

–Michael Gurian