June into July

A Service of Silence & Beholding: 

an unhurried time in which to dwell at the heart of the Eucharist

Sunday 28th June

8a.m.

St. Mary's Church, Sullington

Still Waters: 

a time to enter silence, still the mind and encounter the present moment in quiet

8 -10am

You are welcome to come at either 8 or 9 or to stay for the whole time. 

St Mary's Church, Sullington

Whether these events are part of your rhythm of contemplative practice, or you just need some space away from it all at this time of year, you will be most welcome. 

We love with God when and only when we are the conduit for God's reconciling presence with the person next to us. It is as we connect the other with the source of life that we come to stand in the place of life, the place cleared and occupied for us by Christ. 

Rowan Williams, Silence & Honey Cakes

Peace be with you.

Still Waters

This Saturday, 6^th June, you are once again invited to join Mark and I up at Sullington church from 8am until 10am for ‘Still Waters: a time to enter silence, still the mind and encounter the presence in quiet.’ Our short introductory focus will be on the dynamic between solitude and community – and in particular on the paradox of entering into silence as a radical expression of community and connectedness with all ...

At the heart of a maturing community are people who have begun to find their balance in solitude, their equipoise of conversion, of ready, eucharistic, ungrasping response, of apatheia. By discovering what they must do to find and maintain this moving balance and repose, they have begun to find true community; they have realized interdependence that is focused beyond itself.

Maggie Ross, Pillars of Flame: power, priesthood and spiritual maturity

We hope that you are able to join us.

Peace be with you

Tessa

Indwelling Flame

Pentecost Sunday 

24th May 2015

8a.m.
St. Mary's Church, Sullington

A Service of Silence and Beholding:

 an unhurried time in which to dwell at the heart of the Eucharist

It is done.

Once again Fire has penetrated the earth...

without earthquake, or thunderclap: the flame has lit up the whole world from within...

so naturally has it flooded every element, every energy, 

every connecting-link in the unity of our cosmos, 

that one might suppose the cosmos to have burst spontaneously into flame. 

The Mass on the World

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Peace be with you

Resurrection Beholding - continued...

This coming Saturday, 2nd May, is an opportunity to gather for another Contemplative Fire session of Still Waters: a time to enter silence, still the mind and encounter the present moment in quiet. 

Our focus will continue with 'Resurrection Beholding', on this occasion using a seven-step movement, developed by Revd Philip Roderick and which I have used on my own, with small groups and with too many to count of all ages at Greenbelt, the Christian music and arts festival. It is a wonderful contemplative exercise, very stilling, insightful and fun! 

We shall begin at 8am up at St, Mary's, Sullington and repeat the session at 9am. You are welcome to come for an hour at either 8 or 9, or to stay for the whole time - it's interesting how the second session is never the same as the first!  No booking required and all are welcome. Look forward to seeing you. 

'You are the deep innerness of all things,

the last word that can never be spoken.'

Maria Rainer Rilke

Peace be with you

Tessa

Resurrection Beholding of the Deep Innerness of all Things

As the season of Eastertide deepens, all are welcome to our monthly Service of Silence & Beholding at St. Mary's Sullington, this Sunday 26th April at 8am. Weather permitting, there will be an opportunity to be outside for a while during our shared liturgy of silence, stillness and reflection, before gathering again inside for the breaking of bread and sharing of wine. 

You are the deep innerness of all things,

the last word that can never be spoken.

Maria Rainer Rilke

Peace be with you

Easter Meditation ...

The Rose Within (detail)

Tessa Holland

You are the future,

the red sky before sunrise

over fields of time.

you are the cock's crow when night is done,

you are the dew and the bells of matins,

maiden, stranger, mother, death.

You create yourself in ever-changing shapes

that rise from the stuff of our days - 

unsung, unmourned, undescribed,

like a forest we never knew.

You are the deep innerness of all things,

the last word that can never be spoken.

to each of us you reveal yourself differently:

to the ship as coastline, to the shore as ship. 

Rainer Maria Rilke

translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Peace be with you.

'absence that is like a presence ...'

Still Waters returns to St. Mary's Church, Sullington, from April until October.  We begin at 8am with a short introduction leading into shared silence of about 35 - 40 minutes, followed by a repeat at 9am. You are welcome to come for an hour, or to stay for the whole time.    

Saturday, 4th April 2015

8-10am

St. Mary's Church, Sullington. RH20 4AE

It will be what some call 'Holy Saturday', which concludes the season of Lent. For me this is a pivotal day, one with its own significance, often overlooked with business, following Good Friday the day before and anticipating the celebrations of Easter Day. So it will be a time of watching and waiting, emptying into the silence, bringing our loving attention to what the poet R. S. Thomas described as 'this great absence that is like a presence'.

Peace be with you.