The Restory Retreat Centre

  More or Less or Less or More “He must increase, but I must decrease.” ‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭30‬ ‭NRSVUE‬‬                    "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” ‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬ ‭NRSVUE‬‬                   The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Music Let Your God Love You Be silent. Be still. Alone. Empty Before your God. Say nothing. Ask nothing. Be silent. Be still. Let your God look upon you. That is all. God knows. God understands. God loves you With an enormous love, And only wants To look upon you With that love. Quiet. Still. Be. Let your God - Love you. Edwina Gateley                                                        With much love. George & Matilda

  Min of Meer of Minder of Meer? "Hy moet meer word, en ek minder."      Joh 3:30                                      "Ek het gekom dat hulle lewe kan hê, en dit in oorvloed." Joh 10:10                                     Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Musiek Let Your God Love You Be silent. Be still. Alone. Empty Before your God. Say nothing. Ask nothing. Be silent. Be still. Let your God look upon you. That is all. God knows. God understands. God loves you With an enormous love, And only wants To look upon you With that love. Quiet. Still. Be. Let your God - Love you. Edwina Gateley                                                       Met bai...

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came. I say móre: the just man justices; Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is — Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men's faces. *                                                                       Gerard Manley Hopkins Delmas, our closest town, is no dif...

Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; -Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.                                                               Gerard Manley Hopkins: Pied beauty Before going to sleep at night, while lying in bed, I love to read. There is usually a Manhattan skyline of books stacked high on the little table close at hand. I am not very particular in my bedtime reading – anything black on white will do. However, a tool catalogue is an absolute treat. And if it is an antique tool catalogue, I’m in heaven. To be honest, I love looking at the pictures. For some reason or the other, the picture...

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;    As tumbled over rim in roundy wells         Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's         Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;                 Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:              Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;           Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,       Crying What I do is me: for that I came .    I say more: the just man justices;                Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;          ...

As often happens, a book jumped out at me the other day in one of the many second hand bookshops I frequent. I was so exited I could hardly bear it! Gerard Manley Hopkins - A selection of his Poems and Prose by W.H. Gardner. Inside these pages I would be able to get to know him better, as is befitting for one I feel to be a soul-friend even if he lived and died many years before I was even born. The eldest of eight children, Gerard was born in 1844, into a Victorian family where art, literature and religion formed part of their daily diet. For many years, Gerard aspired to become a painter, and two of his brothers did. Gerard's talent in drawing is as evident as his genius in writing and poetry. He was a brilliant student and during his studies after his acceptance into the Catholic Church in 1866, he was proclaimed "the star of Balliol". He was influenced greatly by the Discipline of the Society of Jesus as based on the Spiritual Exercises written by it's fo...

This darksome burn, horseback brown, His rollrock highroad roaring down, In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam Flutes and low to the lake falls home. A windpuff-bonnet of fawn-froth Turns and twindles over the broth Of a pool so pitchblack, fell-frowning, It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning. Degged with dew, dappled with dew Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn. What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. Gerard Manley Hopkins This is a very important poem for me personally. It was my first introduction to the work of this great nature poet. Much of Hopkins' poetry I cannot fathom by trying to understand it mentally. I have to read it out aloud and allow the rhythm and the sounds to paint the picture for me. I remember how I felt when...