The Restory Retreat Centre

Please, Can I Have A God God is greater than God.                                                                                                                              Meister Eckhart The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Please can I have a God (after Selima Hill) not fossilized, hardened, stiff, unshaken, not contained in creeds and testimonies, judgments and stone tablets, but in the wound breaking open. Please can I have a God who asks me to worship at the altar of mystery, to lay aside certainty, and curl up in the hollow of a great stone down by the river, to hear the force of it rushing past. P...

  Kan  Ek Asseblief 'n God Hê God is groter as God.                                                                                     Meister Eckhart Die Gesprek  Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Please can I have a God (after Selima Hill) not fossilized, hardened, stiff, unshaken, not contained in creeds and testimonies, judgments and stone tablets, but in the wound breaking open. Please can I have a God who asks me to worship at the altar of mystery, to lay aside certainty, and curl up in the hollow of a great stone down by the river, to hear the force of it rushing past. Please can I have a God with questions rather than answers, who is not Rock or Fortress or Father, but sashays, swerves, ripens, rages at the rape of the earth. Please can I have a God whose voice is t...

Statue of St Kevin and the blackbird at Knock I recently came across the beautiful Celtic story of St Kevin and the Blackbird. When St Kevin prayed in his hut with arms outstretched, the room was so small that he had to put one arm through the window. One day, while praying in this manner, a blackbird came, landed on his palm and started to build a nest. St Kevin did not want to disturb the new life that was taking shape in his hand and remained in that position until the little blackbirds were hatched, raised and ready to fly away. Christine Valters-Paintner reflected on the story in the following poem St. Kevin and the Blackbird (after Seamus Heaney) Imagine being like Kevin, your grasping fist softens, fingers uncurl and palms open, rest upward, and the blackbird weaves twigs and straw and bits of string in the begging bowl of your hand, you feel the delicate weight of speckled blue orbs descend, and her feathered warmth settling in for a w...

Me in inner child mode, discovering the berries of the cotoneasters.  Photograph by Sonja Hindley When Hanna used words like curiosity, openness, an attitude of wonder and humility to unlock the door to contemplative photography, my inner child sat up and took notice. Somehow, even though I've done my bit of reading up on the subject, I didn't make the connection. In anticipating my first hands-on encounter with contemplative photography during our weekend retreat, I imagined myself sitting somewhere very beautiful, keeping very still and being very serious as every now and again I serenely lift my camera to capture a very tranquil scene. Not so. We were invited to play! And so I did. Trying to keep in mind to wait for the image to be given rather than trying to capture or take or shoot one. How aggressive that sounds! I frolicked to my heart's content. Through my camera I witnessed the sun rising and painting everything in shades of red and gold, discovered the ...

I have had one of my poems and quotes-series experiences again. Where all of a sudden I encounter poems and quotations on the same theme within days of each other. Usually it is an indication that I should take notice, or that I should pass it on. And so I do. The theme that announced itself again this time around is the sacredness or holiness of ordinary everyday objects. One of my favourite subjects and definitely not new. But there must be a reason these words introduced themselves now. I share them gladly. What if our religion was each other If our practice was our life If prayer, our words What if the temple was the Earth If forests were our church If holy water--the rivers, lakes, and ocean What if meditation was our relationships If the teacher was life If wisdom was self-knowledge If love was the center of our being.                                       ...

"As Above, So Below" - Photograph by Patricia Turner Please can I have a God (after Selima Hill) not fossilized, hardened, stiff, unshaken, not contained in creeds and testimonies, judgments and stone tablets, but in the wound breaking open. Please can I have a God who asks me to worship at the altar of mystery, to lay aside certainty, and curl up in the hollow of a great stone down by the river, to hear the force of it rushing past. Please can I have a God with questions rather than answers, who is not Rock or Fortress or Father, but sashays, swerves, ripens, rages at the rape of the earth. Please can I have a God whose voice is the sound of a girl, long silent from abuse, now speaking her first word, who is not sweetness or light, but the fierce utterance of “no” in all the places where love has been extinguished. Please can I have a God the color of doubt, the shape of uncertainty, who sees that within me dwells a multitude, grief and joy, envy and g...