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...

  Control   The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Music In our attempts to control everything, including God, and place it in predictable boxes and compartments, we lose far more than we gain. Our lives do not become as safe as we had hoped. It becomes sterile. A blessing originally written by Ruth Fox for students receiving degrees at Dickinson State University in America.  May God bless you with Discontent with easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live from deep within your heart. May God bless you with Anger at injustice, oppression, abuse, and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace. May God bless you with Tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and to change their pain to joy. May God bless you with the Foolishness to think you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do the things wh...

  Enthusiastic God The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  George gets his birthday card and itinerary in one, in bed. Music One does not really expect it from him, but just something playful and light from Andrea Bocelli. May the strength of the wind  and the light of the sun, The softness of the rain  and the mystery of the moon  Reach you and fill you. May beauty delight you  and happiness uplift you,  May wonder fulfill you  and love surround you. May your step be steady  and your arm be strong. May your heart be peaceful  and your word be true. May you seek to learn,  may you learn to live,  May you live to love,  and may you love ~ always.       Celtic Blessing                                                         With our love. George & Matild...

Eight Day Silent Retreat The Conversation Elements From The Conversation ~ ❖ ~ This framed blessing of John O'Donohue hung against one wall in the cottage at the Retreat Center. Some days I just became quiet around it. A Blessing For One Who Is Exhausted When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight, The light in the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before Now become laborsome events of will. Weariness invades your spirit. Gravity begins falling inside you, Dragging down every bone. The tide you never valued has gone out. And you are marooned on unsure ground. Something within you has closed down; And you cannot push yourself back to life. You have been forced to enter empty time. The desire that drove you has relinquished. There is nothing else to do now but rest And patiently learn to receive the self You have forsaken for the race ...

Small Acts, Large Impact ”....as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.“ ‭‭Matt ‭25‬:‭40‬                           The Conversation Elements From The Conversation  Music Go! Go with haste! Go fast! Never stop going out, Out from the peace and quietness, Out to the noise and uneasiness, Out to the laughter and the tears. Carry with you the bread of life that you received As a treasure in your hands and in your heart. Share it, again and again. It will always be enough, If you continue to break it. From a Norwegian Liturgical Poem                  With our love. Always. George & Matilda

  Into The Silence The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Music This blessing, after a line by Alfred Lord Tennyson: May your eyes be homes of silent prayers. With our love. Always.  George & Matilda

  Edge Walkers The Conversation Elements From The Conversation "...I see myself as an “edge walker,” wandering along the hemlines of the Christ tradition.  Perhaps you are an edge walker too.  Edge walkers occupy a thin space and are by definition a bit lonely.  Most people inhabit the vast spaces on both sides of edges.  But those of us called to the thresholds—the edges between— live in this thin space and recognize one another when we meet." Victoria Loorz: Church Of The Wild                 Music Artists are often edge walkers, be that poets, painters, writers or singers.  Leonard Cohen who grew up in the Jewish tradition, often taps into Christian themes and images as well. His "If It Be Your Will"  is a beautiful example of the way he approaches prayer and uses traditianal language and concepts, but interprets it in a fresh way and applies it in his life.   The poet, Emily Dickinson, does the same with...

  Israel/Gaza And Our Image Of God The Conversation Elements From The Conversation If God Would Go On A Sick Leave: A Prayer For Peace Nowhere is there more prayer. The Nuns at the Holy Sepulchre. The faithful at Al Aqsa Mosque. The worshippers at the Wall. The call to prayer at dawn and dusk Warbling from the citadels. The church bells, The Persian trills, The passion spilled over texts From every major/minor religious sect. Nowhere is there more prayer than Jerusalem, Thanks be to God, Hamdilala, Baruch Hashem. And yet, I'm starting to think that it's You and not them, God, what's the point of prayer? If there's nowhere where There's more prayer, And terror reigns Then, Who's to blame? If suddenly, without a whisper goodbye, Jesus, Allah, Adonai, The three men they admire most All took the last train for the coast, And the Moslems got up from their knees And the Christians put down their rosaries And the Jews stayed their hands from kissing Their mezuzahs, And...