The Restory Retreat Centre

  Love and Sorrow The Restory's program this week largely reflects the larger Easter themes. Over Easter weekend, starting on Thursday, the exceptional Pippa Jarvis from Embrace Village is hosting an Expressions of Loss retreat here with us, with the  focus on mourning. Others' stories of loss and grief unfold our humanity and touch us, precisely because recognition and compassion are part of the process. Over the 5 days that it lasts, we reflect on elements of the grieving process during the prayer times in the morning and evening, which beautifully connect with and give new meaning to the themes of Easter. The opening and closing prayers at the beginning and end of the times of silence, are the lines from a poem or other literature that highlight the theme of that day: Thursday Good Friday Holy Saturday Easter Sunday Easter Monday On the last day of the retreat, we return to the prayers of the first day.   Before the start of the retreat, with us being alone here at Ta...

Holy Saturday Illustration by Alma Sheppard-Matsuo “Jesus said, “You’re looking for proof, but you’re looking for the wrong kind.  All you want is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles.  The only proof you’re going to get is what looks like the absence of proof: Jonah-evidence.  Like Jonah, three days and nights in the fish’s belly,  the Son of Man will be gone three days and nights in a deep grave.”                                                                                                                                   ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭39‬-‭40‬...

  Easter As Message  Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground,  dead to the world,  it is never any more than a grain of wheat.  But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.  In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life.  But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.                                                             ‭‭John‬ ‭12:24-25‬ ‭(The Message)   Our Conversation Elements From Our Conversation There is death, destruction, grief, sighs and tears.... Scars of a war, Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 2022 An old, hauntingly beautiful folk song from Ukraine  (Click on the link to listen) Plyve Kacha  The lyrics, translated into English:  A duck swims upon the Tysyna ...

The darkness is still with us, O Lord.  You are still hidden  and the world which you have made does not want to know   you or receive you... You are still the hidden child in a  world grown old... You are still obscured by the veils of this  world's history,  you are still destined not to be acknowledged  in the scandal of your death on the cross... But I, O hidden  Lord of all things, boldly affirm my faith in you.  In confessing you, I take my stand with you...  If I make this avowal of faith, it must pierce the depths of  my heart like a sword,  I must bend my knee  before you, saying,  I must alter my life. I have still to become a Christian. ~Karl Rahner,   Prayers for Meditation