Voices of the Community
Title:
A Quiet Communion
Series:
Voices of the Community
Preview:
All things must have a start, even times of quiet contemplation. After several days of hard cold rain on the Northern California coast ones thinking can become gray as the [...]
Title:
Walking Into the Dawn
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Voices of the Community
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Before setting out for morning services, John and I stood outside of our hermitage, which overlooked the valley and the monastery below, and gazed into the pre-dawn sky; the same [...]
Title:
The Silent Call
Series:
Voices of the Community
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Step inside and bolt the door.The inner room is now secure.Distractions quelled from busy mind,The Lord of Hosts is here to dine. This daily banquet with our LordIs fullness of [...]
Title:
But
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Voices of the Community
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What would you doIf you were givenBut just one more day to live? “I’d spend it with a loved one”“I’d conquer every fear”“I’d grab life by the horns,And do all [...]
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Voices of the Community
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I was overwhelmed by constant, intense, thoughts and feelings of fear. At the time, I believed that if I was just ‘right with God’, or, became a ‘better Christian’, these [...]
Title:
Given to Me
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Voices of the Community
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In May of 2008, I attended a Centering Prayer Presenter-Formation Retreat at St. Mary’s Retreat Center, Sewanee, Tennessee. On the night of May 18, we all participated in group lectio [...]
Title:
One Step
Series:
Voices of the Community
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We gather at the noon hourMorning choices made, now past;Silence at table, sit wonderingIf the insights will last. I’ve been here many times beforeWell, in this kind of holy place;Impatient [...]
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Voices of the Community
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1. The Rock – a living relationship with Christ Jesus urges his followers to build on rock and not on sand (Mt. 7.24 – 27). In South Africa we have [...]
Title:
Lessons
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Voices of the Community
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The Real only comes to some-to those listening. To those whocan endure the fathomless silence,starting first in your core, then spreadingthroughout the room,through shut windows. It takes time to hear, sometimes [...]
Series:
Voices of the Community
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The slippery slope of questioning the fundamentals of belief …. I slid off AND.. found GOD; GOD bigger than our beliefs, than our understanding, than our constructs to understand God. [...]
Series:
Voices of the Community
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It is the wailing and the weepingThat wakes the will to repentInfinite happiness is the soul’s birthrightAnd all unhappiness comesFrom selling it for a pot of porridgeWhich leaves the soul [...]
Title:
Advent Reflection
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Voices of the Community
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Soon I’ll retire for the day and receive the gift of sleep. I’m writing from the Katoski room at the Shalom Retreat Center in Dubuque, Iowa where I’m leading a [...]
Series:
Voices of the Community
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“Consent” or “surrender-accept.” “Consent to God’s presence and action within.” Sometimes I hear something so often that I cease to actually hear what it says. Consent, surrender, and accept have [...]
Title:
Contemplative Outreach South Africa: On Our Regional Retreat and the Passing of Nelson Mandela
Series:
Voices of the Community
Preview:
On the 5th December 2013, seven of us met at Sediba mountain centre for our annual three-day retreat. Sediba (the source) is set in the Magaliesberg Mountains, overlooking Hartebeespoort dam. [...]
Title:
The Witness to “Is”
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Voices of the Community
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There is just this witness to observe both inside and outside the body-mind. There is this detachment and I am not identified with either. It feels like my mind [...]
Title:
What Happens When
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Voices of the Community
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What happens whenhe ground on which one standsBecomes a mighty chasmAnd earth a distant land? What happens whenThe new found earthIs not outside but inAnd deafened ears and frigid heartAre [...]
Title:
Holy Manure
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Voices of the Community
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[This homily was delivered on March 2, 2013, at the Sunday Eucharist concluding a 4-day Silent Retreat on Contemplative Living with Mary Dwyer in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada.] O God, you [...]
Title:
Snorkeling in God
Series:
Voices of the Community
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I am grateful to have been practicing centering prayer for several years now. While in Hawaii with my family last summer, I would practice centering prayer on a hammock then [...]
Title:
Silence
Series:
Voices of the Community
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I spent 19 years as a lay-brother at St. Joseph’s Abbey when Father Thomas was my Abbot. He was a wonderful man who helped me develop my spiritual life. I [...]
Series:
Voices of the Community
Preview:
In May 2011, the Lectio Divina Service Team of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. developed and presented a six-day Lectio Divina Immersion Retreat that focused on the four senses of scripture: literal, [...]
