Returning Home to Love
October Newsletter - with audio
A Chara… dear friend, in Irish ~
A few days ago I returned from a retreat that I was fortunate enough to attend as a participant. Woven into that retreat were opportunities to practice Centering Prayer, a prayer tradition you may be familiar with, that involves sitting in intentional stillness and continually returning to God’s love in the center of our being. The bell rings, calling us into that silent, listening place, and when (not if, but when) our thoughts drift to our to-do lists, to our anxieties and worries, to our wonderings and musings, to our analyzing and theorizing, we notice those thoughts and then gently call ourselves back to our center with a prayer word or name for God. It’s not the word or name that matters as much as the return. It’s all about the return. It’s about that gentle practice of returning, over and over, a thousand times over, to the heart of who we are deep inside, the heart of who we are created to be, returning to our own hearts and to the heart of God - the divine love dwelling within us. The act of returning again and again carves those paths, deeper and more securely within us. Returning helps us to ensure that we can find our way back whenever we need to.
When I was practicing centering prayer at the retreat this week, I realized I have been using the same word/name for God for the past 15 years. It has become so second nature to me that I hadn’t even noticed how long it has stayed with me. I may have trialed another word or phrase here or there, or sometimes an image of God will stay with me for a while. But ultimately, I always fall back on that one word. It’s so simple, so basic… yet for me, it’s what brings me home. It’s what brings me deep down into the core of who I am, where I know that I am loved, where I know that I’m not alone, where know that I can rest, where I know that I belong.
Returning home at the end of the retreat, as I drew closer to the house where I live with my family, I started to recognize signs of familiarity in the terrain. The trees that are tall and dark, leaning over as if waving a welcome. The twists in the country roads that I have travelled so many times, propelling me forward as I intuited their every turn. The gentle curve of the mountain that watches over me as I wind my way towards the stunning cliff, and sea, and islands that mark my destination.
And then I returned to the house I live in that has become home because of all the times I have returned to it. I’ve carved that path to this particular place where I live, where love lives, where I can be myself, where I can warm myself at the hearth of belonging.
That’s what prayer can be for us. Returning home to love. Returning home to belonging. Returning to the center of who we are. Returning to our own hearts and to the heart of God within us.
What helps you return to that center of love and belonging? Is there a word or name for God that helps you carve that path to the divine love at your center, to the heart of who you are and the heart of God that dwells within you?
Retreats, Retreats and more Retreats!
I have been LOVING all the retreats this month! I hope you can join me for some of the retreat opportunities coming up, whether online or in person.
Retreats @ Home (Online)
Read the post from last week about these upcoming online retreats (5 Nov, 3 Dec, 7 Jan) through the winter months. If you opt for a paid subscription to support Bless My Feet, you’ll simply receive an email with the Zoom link - you don’t need to register through Eventbrite. If you’d like to take it one retreat at a time, you can book them individually. I would love to journey together with you during those winter months.
Befriending the Darkness: Winter Retreats @ Home (online), 5 Nov 2022
Longing for Light: Winter Retreats @ Home (online), 3 Dec 2022
Welcoming the Dawn: Winter Retreats @ Home (online), 7 Jan 2023
Retreats @ Corrymeela
I will be leading weekend retreats in February 2023, and April 2023, and we’ve set dates for October 2023 and February 2024 too. I’m also excited to announce that I’m offering monthly half-day retreats at Corrymeela for anyone who would like to dip in to the retreat experience but aren’t able to come for longer periods of time. Contact welcome@corrymeela.org for more information, or click on the link below.
Half-day Retreat Spaces @ Corrymeela
Retreats @ Belfast
A few of you have let me know you’d be interested in a retreat space in Belfast - thank you! If you’d like to add your name to that list, please let me know by responding to this email - I’ll keep you posted on here and directly.
Resilient Spirit Pilgrimage April 2024
If a pilgrimage or extended retreat is something you’re longing for, mark your calendars for mid April 2024. I will be announcing details on this soon, but it is sure to be an incredible, life-changing experience. Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in by responding to this email.
Upcoming Psalms for the Spirit Podcast Episodes
I’m delighted to say that there are new episodes of Psalms for the Spirit afoot. I’ve learned so much from these conversations and I hope you have too, if you’ve had a chance to dip in. The great freedom of this podcast is that it is ever changing with absolutely no deadlines or pressure (on me, the producer!). There have been a few scheduling delays, but the episodes will come out as and when they’re ready… In the meantime, if you’d like to listen to the 20 episodes of Seasons 1 and 2, check out the new podcast page. If you’d like to subscribe to that newsletter, which I will be using during this next season, that would be great too!
Upcoming Celtic Psalms Concerts
We'll be singing at a beautiful ecumenical liturgy coming up in a few weeks in North Belfast on the afternoon of the first Sunday of November (see details above). It will be an in person-only event; a chance to take a breath and enter the winter months with some food for your spirit.
And on Friday the 18th of November at 8pm, we'll be holding a concert at the newly refurbished Cahans meeting house in Co. Monaghan, Ireland. We've sung there in the past (as this photo above shows) but this time, we will be the first to use their newly refurbished space. All being well, there will be electricity! It's a really special space to sing in, with brilliant acoustics. Our hosts, who have a heart for cross community work, have welcomed us so generously and we look forward to the opportunity to be there again in a few weeks. If you're in the area or know someone nearby, please join us or pass these details on.
Blessing for Our Journey
May the God of the loving heart
call us back to the loving heart within us
so that we might return
over and over
a thousand times over
to the center that always holds
the divine love that always holds us.
May we carve those paths
toward that place of belonging
so that we might return
and rest
and warm ourselves
in the hearth of love
that always waits within.
Amen