Category Archives: Misc

Retreat for men – ‘On being a man’

Posted on by
Reply

On being a man –
A weekend retreat for men in beautiful north Northumbria
May 4 – 6th 2007

This is an introductory retreat on masculine spirituality which will explore and touch on several themes including exploring our perceptions of being male, Jesus the man, wounds of the father and further steps to developing a mature masculinity.

I am a member of the Northumbria community and lived at the mother house for 3 years which had a major impact on my spiritual formation. The Community is a dispersed community interested in exploring a new monasticism informed by Celtic spirituality and the desert fathers and mothers. The community is situated in the middle of the countryside – 10 miles form Holy Island.
I would like to invite you to experience the hospitality and rhythm of the community in the wilds of north Northumberland while also focussing on what is means to be a man in this introduction to masculine spirituality

For more info about the community, my work with men and to book please go to there website at http://www.northumbriacommunity.org

The sound made me do it !

Posted on by
2

Last weekend I had to do a presentation on the history of therapeutic drumming. Like many others on the course the discussion went back to sound and vibration. The first sound we hear is our mother’s heartbeat, a pulse, the life force.

My presentation was about sound and movement (dance) I started by describing how it is so natural for young children to move to the beat. When my 2 year old hears music he moves his body, he can’t help it, it is impulsive, natural, part of who he is. The older we get – we lose this ability and lose connection with our body.

While researching I was reminded that sound was at the core of creation – when God spoke.. “let there be light� there was light. Sound was connected to something physical happening. In Hebrew the word “Dabhar� which we translate as ‘word’ implies deeds and actions not just words, accomplishments not talk and creation not verbalising.

Dabhar is active, imaginative and playful.

I like this… so much better then boring old words….so many said, texted, written that are meaningless, pointless and powerless… less is definitely more.

Let there be Dabhar !!

Gideon Salvage Duty

Posted on by
Reply

MSC Napoli beached ship

On Sunday afternoon my family and I went down to Beer Head (cliffs) to have a look at the beacked container ship MSC Napoli off Branscombe.

From this BBC News item I see that foreign language Bibles are being washed up. As a Gideon (! who’d have thought it eh?) part of me wonders if I should try and procure these items, however there does seem to be a bit of argument about the legality of picking up salvage. I just hope that they won’t be wasted. I’ll keep my ear to the ground (or should that be seabed?) on this one.

The Zahir

Posted on by
4

I’ve recently been reading some books by Paulo Coelho including, ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘By the river Piedra I sat down and wept’

I have found his books a great inspiration written from the heart and I would certainly recommend them. The latest book of his I’m reading is called ‘The Zahir’ which is all about love and what it means to follow your heart. Below is a passage from this book on relationships and communication.

“The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk any more, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theatre, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather round a fire and tell stories�

The longest night of the year

Posted on by
Reply

Tonight we celebrated the winter solstice with a few friends around a lovely fire in our garden.

We seek to celebrate the passing of the seasons and connect with the ancient rhythms and cycle of the year. My interest in celebrating and connecting the passing of our days has been informed by my interest in Celtic and creation spirituality and my inner need for rhythm. I need to do this – to keep connected to myself, to god, to others, to the seasons and to creation.

I believe that the further we move away from creation the harder it becomes to connect with our soul. I believe that everything belongs and therefore I need to keep connected with the sacredness of life – with all living things.

When God speaks – the physical is created – in the first instance creation and in the second when Jesus was born – this is sacred materialism or incarnation.

I love winter – I see it as a time for going inwards – for reflection, for hibernation – ideally I would love to reduce my work time and listen to the seasons and my body, but our busy world often prevents this… so in our liturgy we seek to reflect on the past year, taking time to feel the cold and then the warmth of the fire…. Below is part of the liturgy that we use…

Tonight we welcome and celebrate winter
Light nights have faded and darkness covers the hours
The moon is visible longer than the sun
We welcome short days and long nights
We welcome coldness and cosiness
We welcome winter nights

Tonight we become aware that we have passed from the brightness of the sun
To the softness of the moon.
We have moved from neon illumination blinding us into outward activity
To the warmth of mellow light leading us inward
Help us embrace and discover this feminine journey in the comfort of sister moon.
We welcome you sister moon

God Giggled

Posted on by
5

It was the first Christmas and…

God giggled
God farted
God burped
God gurgled
God needed a cuddle
God was a baby…

Christmas reminds us:

That we don’t have to find God – he finds us in our humanity –
We don’t have to go up – he came down
We find God in the physical, in our bodies, in material, in humanity.
God became one of us….

IASYM

Posted on by
Reply

Is anyone going to, or knows anyone going to IASYM in Cambridge from the South west that I could share a lift with, I am happy to drive but thought a car share may be good. I am in Somerset so could meet up here if someone was coming from Cornwall, Devon or Dorset, then I am travelling via A303 and M3?

Advent reflection for today

Posted on by
4

For God to become a baby he had to
Squeeze himself into a small space
Confine himself into a fallible body
Restrict himself to humanity
Reduce himself to limited movements
Become weak and vulnerable
Rely on humans to take care of him
For Christ to become one of us
He had to be born like us
The light was hidden within the womb
The thirst quencher received refreshment from the breast of Mary
The bread of life had to learn how to eat
The one who holds us, first had to be held
The Lover was loved
The way had to learn to walk
The word had to learn to speak
The teacher was taught
The creator how to create
This is our God…