The Restory Retreat Centre

  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...

  Help With Motivations “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.  God is love...” ‭‭1 John 4‬:‭16 NRSV                               ‬‬ ~ ❖ ~ “Come to me,  all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,  and I will give you rest.” ‭‭Matthew 11:28 NRSV                             ~ ❖ ~  The Conversation Elements From The Conversation ~ ❖ ~ “If you would only switch on the light of awareness  and observe yourself and everything around you throughout the day,  if you would see yourself reflected in the mirror of awareness  the way you see your face reflected in a looking glass,  that is, accurately, clearly, exactly as it is without the slightest distortion or addition,  and if you observed this reflection  without any judgment or condemnation,  you would experi...

  God Happening The Conversation Elements From The Conversation Music With our love. George & Matilda

  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...

  God Is Love  God is not a sky king who heads an empire; God is the love that gives itself away for the sake of more love.                                                                         Cynthia Bourgeault The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation   God protects me from nothing…. So, let's say you have the Scriptures, you have your quiet time with God, and you hear a word. Let's say the text is Jesus saying, "Fear not. Fear not." And in faith, you know that the deathless presence of Jesus, who said that to the disciples, is now saying it to you, telling you not to be afraid. And your heart immediately recognizes it's beautiful, even before you think about it. Prior to reflecting on i...

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...

  My Image Of God God is love.                                   1 John 4:8 The Conversation Elements From The Conversation The Worst Thing We Ever Did The worst thing we ever did was put God in the sky out of reach pulling the divinity from the leaf, sifting out the holy from our bones, insisting God isn’t bursting dazzlement  through everything we’ve made  a hard commitment to see as ordinary,  stripping the sacred from everywhere  to put in a cloud man elsewhere, prying closeness from your heart. The worst thing we ever did was take the dance and the song out of prayer made it sit up straight  and cross its legs removed it of rejoicing wiped clean its hip sway,  its questions,  its ecstatic yowl, its tears. The worst thing we ever did is pretend  God isn’t the easiest thing  in this Universe  available to every soul  in every ...