The Restory Retreat Centre

  May You Make Mistakes The Conversation Elements From The Conversation ~ ❖ ~ Mama (Lena Younger) to Beneatha: "Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most?  When they done good and made things easy for everybody?  Well then, you ain't through learning – because that ain't the time at all.  It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so!  When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right.  Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through  before he got to wherever he is." From "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry          ~ ❖ ~ Musiek A song that somehow just feels right here in the first week of the new year Along with much love we give you this blessing today: “I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit - not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength - that Christ will live in you as you open...

For The New Year (For the original photo - thank you to our friend Ben) Looking back, it was, among other things, Rilke’s year. Here at Die Restory we have talked about him, he has often surfaced in our reflections on something and he was brought in on a few occasions to serve in the Opening and Closing Prayers of our meditations. He speaks our language. And hopefully, over time, he has influenced our voice.   Against that backdrop, and with the gathering of bits and pieces of Rilke here and there, our message to you here at The Restory:     In The Doorway Of A New Year (With thanks to Rainer Maria Rilke)   At the turning of the year, we are invited not to rush ahead, but to live the questions a little longer.   To trust that what is unfinished, what feels unclear or tired, may still be quietly at work within us.   The new year does not ask for answers, only for presence. For a willingness to stay close to what is real — to the rhythms of...

  A New Year And The Restory Is Moving The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  A very handy web page, should you wish to apply the Prayer Of Examen on your experiences of the past year. In the process, 2022 can become rich harvest that can help with your journey into the new year.  The Great Annual Examen (Thank you, Monique Winn, who told us about it) A Few Images Of Tafelkop, The Restory's New Home. At this stage, the lush green grass will be the most wonderful thing of our new place, according to our granddaughter, Ariana. Music   We know that we face a number of challenges in 2023, but every time we visit Tafelkop and stroll around on the old farmyard, we realize it is ideally suited for what we've envisaged when we came to Wakkerstroom, 9 years ago. As was the case with Barrowfield, we want Tafelkop to be a safe haven where people can rest and listen to their heart of hearts, where God is speaking to them.      At 2 000 m above sea ...

Photograph by George Angus “I am not saying that we should love death, but rather that we should love life so generously, without picking and choosing, that we automatically include it (life’s other half) in our love.”                                                                                    Rainer Maria Rilke I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God's people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love.  Yes, may you come to know his love - although it can never be fully known - and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.                                   ...

Quechua woman - Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica It is impossible, I think, taking our nature into consideration, that anyone who fails to realize that he or she is favored by God should have the courage necessary for doing great things.                                                                       St. Teresa of Avila Last year our friend Ralie introduced me to an author I haven’t known before, Gregory Boyle. He is a Jesuit priest who has been working under the gangs of Los Angeles for more than 20 years. In his book Tattoos on the Heart he recollects some of his experiences and the people he got to know and love. Here at the beginning of 2015 I want to post an excerpt from the book that deals with an episode in his life while still a very young priest, before his work in Los Angeles....

A long, long time ago there lived a king. He was not as rich as Solomon, as gifted as David, as brave as Cyrus the Persian or as wise as Suleiman the Magnificent. He was an “ordinary” king that tried to serve his people as best he could. And his subjects were grateful. They often brought him gifts, mostly the first of their harvest whether that be wheat, wine, salt or olive oil. On the first day of every New Year a prophet living in the mountains came to visit the palace. He was a sight to behold with his wild hair and beard, his sun tanned skin and even the soldiers at the court stepped back as he approached. He never spoke a word with the king. When he entered the throne room everybody became quiet. The king indicated that he may approach; the prophet bowed, took an old bag from his back, searched inside and brought forth an overripe fruit. With the fruit in hand he raised his eyes upward and muttered a prayer. Then he kissed the overripe fruit and handed it over to the ki...

We humans need a year to end and the accompanying start of a new one. In nature too Winter gives way to  Spring. There’s Birth and Death. Start and Finish. Sunrise and Sunset. These are all thresholds of sorts. And these are the more obvious ones; the ones we consciously anticipate and experience and hopefully have the chance, wisdom and time to plan for. A new year especially gives us a chance to try again. To start over. To leave things behind and to begin anew in this brand new unlived space consisting of another 365 and a quarter (I think) days. But there are also the more subtle doorways during the course of one’s life. When we move form one stage to another not really aware that we have stepped over a threshold. It is often only in retrospect that one realises this. Or notices this in others. The period of my  driving kids to school—a whopping 21 years - has just ended with the event of my youngest son becoming the proud owner of a driver’s license and  his v...