1. To break open Magisterial teaching on the lay state (selections from Vatican II as well as letters/encyclicals from recent popes) as well as classic spiritual texts to build a thoughtful, practical devotional life.
2. To introduce the various spiritual charisms in the Church (i.e. Dominican, Carmelite, Franciscan, Salesian, etc.) so that they may develop a personal program of spirituality rooted in the uniquely Catholic legacy;
3. To deepen the prayer life through study, communal prayer,  the practice of meditation, Mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours; and
4. To establish a fully Catholic life and mission, including a formation in the art of the Church, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and the commitment to a specific personal work of service.

Barbara R. Nicolosi Harrington is an award-winning writer, commercial screenwriter, internationally known public speaker and communications consultant with significant experience in the non-profit sector. As founder of the globally recognized Act One Program, she mentored Christians for mainstream entertainment careers. Additionally, she was the writer of the film Fatima (2020), serves on the Board of the Catholic Art Institute, and was a university professor of screenwriting, cinema, Great Books and theology.

• The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
• The Cost of Discipleship
• Mission of the Redeemer
• City of God

Texts to include: Rerum Novarum, Lumen Gentium – Dei Verbum – Humane Vitae – Gospel of Life – Familiaris Consortio –

Session 1: Of Human Life and the Theology of the Body: An Island of Sanity in the Post-Sexual Revolution Chaos
Session 2: The Apostolate of the Laity
Session 3: Pope St. Pius X on Modernism
Session 4: The Means of Universal Salvation: Vatican II on the Church
Session 5: Finding Your Family Mission: St. JPII on the Domestic Church
Session 6: St. John Paul II on The Splendor of Truth
Session 7: On Sacred Music (Musicam Sacram) by Pius XII
Session 8: The Church and Science in the Writing of Pius XII and St. JPII
Session 9: Leading Post-Modern Souls to Jesus: Paul VI on the Urgency of Evangelization
Session 10: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei verbum)

Texts to include:  The Divine Comedy, Dante, “The Grand Inquisitor” from Brothers Karamazov

Session 1: The Dark Woods, The Three Beasts: Starting the Descent into Dante's Inferno
Session 2: Caught in the Whirlwind: The Sins of Incontinence in Dante's Inferno
Session 3: Raging at Reality: The Sins of Violence in Dante’s Inferno
Session 4: Rejecting God’s Sovereignty: Sins Against Truth in Dante’s Inferno
Session 5: Beginning the Climb up Purgatory Mountain: Souls Who Just Made It
Session 6: Healing Envy, Anger, Sloth and Greed
Session 7: The Sin of Pride and Remedies
Session 8: Purgatorio: Healing Carnality and Reclaiming the Earthly Paradise
Session 9: Dante’s Paradiso: Beyond Time and Space
Session 10: Paradiso II: The Heaven of the Warriors of God
Session 11: Paradiso III: The Garden of the Mystical Rose

In this second series, we will be breaking open together some of the most beautiful works of art, story, music and poetry that have come down to us through the ages in the Church.

Session 1: Catholic Legacy: Art, Story, Music and Poetry
Session 2: God as 'That Tremendous Lover' in the Hound of Heaven
Session 3: The Hound of Heaven, Part II
Session 4: "That Catholic Thing" in Brideshead Revisited, Part I
Session 5: "A Twitch Upon a Thread:" The Movements of Grace in Brideshead Revisited, Part II
Session 6: Gregorian Chant: The Summit of Sacred Music
Session 7: He Leadeth Me: A Testimony of Divine Providence from the Horrors of Gulag
Session 8: Hospitality, Grace and Thanksgiving: The Eucharistic Metaphor at the Heart of Babette's Feast
Session 9: Brilliant, Perilous, and Exciting Orthodoxy: G.K. Chesterton's Answer to Modern Insanity
Session 10: The Polyphonic Style: The Catholic Church's Other Great Gift to Western Music
Session 11: Temptation in Dostoevsky's "Grand Inquisitor"
Bonus: Retreat for Ministry Leaders: "On Serving in Community"

St. Stephen’s new Mystagogy kicks off with a focus on prayer as the fundamental underpinning of the life of the Catholic disciple.

Session 1: Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Session 2: Elements of Catholic Prayer
Session 3: Marian Hour of Adoration
Session 4: St. Teresa of Avila on Prayer as Watering the Garden
Session 5: St. Teresa of Avila and The Interior Castle
Session 6: The Third to Seventh Mansions in St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle
Session 7: The Stages of Spiritual Life
Session 8: The Eucharist in Classical Painting presented by special guest, Kathleen Carr
Session 9: The Spirituality of the Euchaist and Mass (Part 1)
Session 10: The Spirituality of the Mass (Part 2) and the Blessed Sacrament
Session 11: Aquinas on Suffering: A Call and Response
Session 12: Saint Augustine's Confessions, I
Session 13: Saint Augustine's Confessions, II: Books 3-4
Session 14: Saint Augustine’s Confessions, III: Books 5-7
Session 15: The Conversion of St. Augustine: Books 8 & 9 of The Confessions
Session 16:  The Early Church and the Eucharist