Quiet Space: 18 July 2021
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Quiet Space 18th July 2021
What is it that We seek?
Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see, And what I do in anything, To do it as for Thee. George Herbert
It is silence that offers space for our lives Too big and complex to be explained by any words It is the silence of God that gives a home to all the hopes, the fears, the fragments, the layers, the tangents, the tangles and the tearings And in the silence God holds us, all of us, and tells us ‘You are mine.’ The light, the dark, the shadow, the sun, the rain, the wind, the rainbow and our lives We seek to discover the silence of our God at the very centre of all that we are The living centre that makes the fullness of our humanity possible Silence is the only language spacious enough to include everything. Richard Carter
Silent reflection
Face to face Here in stillness Here as you breathe in deeply Let the presence of God unknot you And fill your longing Like the beauty of rain quenching a parched land Like sunlight’s warming brightness after the dampness of the shadow Like the tenderness of love’s touch after the brittleness of loneliness Like a flower opening imperceptibly Like a bird landing and coming close, unafraid, because in your stillness you are with him Like a shower of rain washing away caked dust Like the discovery of beauty when you thought it had gone away Like the moon reflecting a luminous light Like the stars again when you thought they no longer shone Feel again the flow of God’s life flowing in and out Untangling you from the inside out Like love unseen, unheard, undeserved, expanding your heart Broadening your world Christ rising in you The tomb becoming the place of resurrection. Richard Carter
Silent Reflection
See the people you pass The lives they carry The stories in their faces The fragments of conversations you catch The relationships of those walking together The pain of some you pass like a cry of longing in your own heart for the intimacy And the laughter And the colour and the youth and the age and their differing heights ad breadths Imagine the choosing of the clothes they are wearing See the person Notice the beauty of this diversity the depth and richness and mystery of our humanity The beauty and uniqueness of each face Let this humanity also be your prayer the understandable and the incomprehensible Each and every person made in the image of God Each person known by the Creator Each person loved by the Creator Be filled with compassion Look upon creation with the eyes of a loving father or mother Let this walking be your offering Let this walking be your prayer.
Each day we need to find space to walk with God ‘Follow me,’ he says To look, To hear, To touch, To breathe in, to catch the scent of God’s season Richard Carter
Silent Reflection
Hope Each day is an opportunity for hope And hope will often arise from those deemed hopeless Learn to hope in God even when hope seems impossible and beyond Learn to hope in God’s grace even when the rules of the world cry out that your values have no currency Learn to hope in God’s love Hope as tender and ephemeral as a new shoot But which can make the desert bloom and song birds return Richard Carter
Silent Reflection
Blessing
Blessings on the day born of night. Blessings on the earth wedded to heaven. Blessings on our bodies filled with dreams. Blessings on our hearts opened by love. Blessings, blessings, blessings blessings. John Philip Newell
Silent Reflection
Then to close we share the Grace together May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Love of God, and The fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with us all, now and always. Amen
* The Richard Carter readings are from his book: The City is my Monastery
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