Dear Friends in Silence
I pray this weeks mail finds you all safe and well and travelling your advent journey with peace.
I'm going to begin this week by inviting you to a reflective practice offering using a '3rd Thing' which, can be loosely defined, as a poem, piece of scripture, video or audio, or anything which you introduce as pathway for reflection when perhaps you need that little something to enliven the sacred space between you and the spirit. To begin:
Locate to your presence space...
When you are ready bring yourself to some stillness...
Gift yourself one or two deep breaths....
Let your breath settle to it's natural rythym...
Turn your heart towards Divine presence....
...and read the following passage:
'All that matters is what you love
and what you love is who you are
and who you are is where you are
and where you are is where you will be
when death takes you across the river.
You can't avoid the journey but
you can wake up ... now
and see where you've been
and where you are going.'
from This Ecstacy by John Sqaudra
Let the words settle into you for a few moments...
What word or phrase stands out, lifts your heart or stirs your thoughts...allow this to enliven a silent discourse with The Spirit ....
or
journal for a few minutes with the following questions:
Whan you hear the line, "All that matters is what you love", what comes to your mind/heart? What is it that you love?
How does "what you love" impact who and where you are, right now?
Close out the practice in your preferred way, with silence, a favourite chant or a prayer.
Silentium's Spiritual Practice Group
Last Thursday we commenced our 4 week Advent journey using a movie and discussion series called 'A Weary World - Reflections for a Blue Christmas'. 'This has been as tough a year as it gets for many: covid end days; the war in Ukraine; the affects of climate change; increasing costs of living; deteriorating health and many other factors have affected our sense of well-being and wholeness and amidst it all we contiunue to reach out for connection, peace and hope'
'This four-part series is a conversation with Kathy Escobar discussing spiritual and life practices, from her book A Weary World:Reflections for A Blue Christmas, that she has found helpful when crawling through seemingly impossible loss when it collides with the hustle-and-bustle holiday season. This is more than a “How to survive the holidays” guide, it is her true to life work learning how to honour reality, be honest, hold paradox (both the dark and the light), and borrowing hope when she had none.'
Here is a link to a special follow up post I offered to week 1 if you would like to catch up:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SilentiumConect/honouring-reality
I can't be with you this week due to a prior committment so I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mary Ann for offering to host the space. By the way didn't she do a great job with editing the latest Online Meditation Chapel Newsletter - congratulations Mary Ann and thank you again.
Silentium's Silence on Sunday
Sundays in The Wisdom Chapel, 9am Irish Time (Check Here for the time in your area)
The theme for this 3rd Sunday of Advent the liturgy is Rejoice. Here is a link to where you can download the PDF of the liturgy text:
Emmaus Encounter, Advent Retreat@Home
I invite you to join us on Saturday the 17th of December, 2.30pm-5pm Irish Time, for Silentium's Emmaus Encounter an Advent Retreat@Home.
Interspersed with periods of silence, sharing and movement, the focus Encounter during the retreat will be a 35 minute film called 'Adventus: Joining A Hope That Is To Come' which features with a handful of theologians and practitioners offering their thoughts on Advent, a season of being remade in the dark. Here is a little more about it:
'During this womb-time season, we can enter into the sacred movement of God that we each embody and are invited to carry forward. Adventus is an opening listening room full of beloved TWOTP people Walter Brueggemann, Kelly Brown Douglas, Stanley Hauerwas, Rudy Rasmus, Parker Palmer, Fleming Rutledge, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Ilia Delio, Emilie Townes, James Alison, Richard Rohr, Marlon Hall, Wm Paul Young, Brené Brown, and Jürgen Moltmann. Their voices call us to re-imagine anticipating Jesus’ birth while considering our part in the current and eternal reign of Christ.
Adventus is inspirational material for personal contemplation, and an excellent conversational piece for groups walking through this season together with wonder—God put Godself in human form, God has placed hope in us. What are we to do with it?'
Thank you to those who've let me know you can be there ....If you have a sense that you might be coming along and haven't yet let me know please do drop me a message by using the hub or email at your convenience.
I hope you can join us.
That's it for this week but I invite you as always to please use the comments section below to post any thoughts, reflections or prayers you might have related to anything in this weeks post.
Praying that the rest of your week is wonder-ful and filled with Grace.
Until I see you soon in The Wisdom Chapel.
Immanaire (May it be for all good)
John