| You need to plan today’s retreat, combining the freedom of your own style with certain essentials for a meeting with God – or rather for alerting yourself to God who is present to you all the time. The first and second sessions will prepare you for the Lord’s coming; the third session brings you to Bethlehem. Freedom: You will pray wherever suits you best: maybe walking outside, maybe sitting, standing or kneeling in your room, maybe in a church or chapel. Space: Moses found holy ground on a deserted mountainside. It may not be so easy for you. Find a place where you will be present to God, and God to you, and where others will not distract you. Solitude: turn off your mobile phone, radio and TV, in order to create an affective solitude. Leave off your public person, the mask you wear in your social life. Today you face the Lord naked; he sees your heart and loves you as you are. Cut off anything which would break that link with God. Set up a new, slow rhythm. Seek solitude to see things as they are. What are the little things that busyness has magnified unduly? What are the big things I find too little time for? Today is not for doing but for being: make no effort to achieve, get things done, gather or possess. Waste time creatively. You are not alone. Each sensation is God’s caress. Each breath is saying Yes to God. Time: Make yourself a timetable for the day. Here is a suggestion, to be adapted to suit your circumstances: |
|
|
|
|
Make yourself a timetable for the day. Here is a suggestion, to be adapted to suit your circumstances: |
|
| 10.30 | Session 1: Scripture: the birth of a baby: What will this child be? Playback |
| 11.10 | Midmorning Break |
| 11.30 | Session 2: Scripture: John, what should I do? Playback |
| 13.00 | Midday Break |
| 14.30 | Session 3: The story: Mary and her baby. Review of the day |
*The retreat text is available in Word format. Click here to download. *To download a PDF format file, click here. Sacred Space |
|