I’m reaching back a decade for this one, but I’ve found that some books are timeless in their message. Father Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life is certainly one of them. Others must have felt the same way because the book was revised and updated in late 2023.
Rohr is a Catholic priest in the Franciscan order who’s authored over three dozen books. Falling Upward is one of his most popular, and focuses on a spiritual maturity that occurs in the second half of life. At its heart, his message is about how we can step outside of our comfort zone and use life’s suffering and failings to be a catalyst for spiritual growth.
The book comprises thirteen chapters, and I’ve broken things down into ten lessons, grouping a few of the shorter chapters together. When our class covered this book, I found a wonderful lecture that Rohr gave at Texas Lutheran University. Lucky for me, the lecture is still available on YouTube, and I’ve linked to it from the corresponding lesson plans. Of course he has more recent lectures out there, but this one is specifically targeted at Falling Upward and doesn’t suffer from age.
Note that page numbers in the lesson plan are based on the original book, so if you may need to do at little searching if you use the new version. The updated version’s chapters are the same as the original, so you should otherwise be able to use the lesson plans as-is. There is a Companion Journal you can use alongside the book for personal reflections if you so choose. This is linked from within the plans.
Let me know in the comments if you found this book and the lesson plans useful.