Heart Listening

Heart Listening

(I am re-posting this blog post from a year ago, because I will be doing much the same thing next weekend and I think the message is still important.)

Tomorrow afternoon through Monday lunch I'll be leading a small group of women in an Advent retreat. In our church year, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and is a time of preparation, anticipation, hope, introspection, a time of saying "yes" to God, as did Mary, the mother of Jesus.

At this retreat, we'll do some talking as we sit in a circle, thinking and writing about Mary and how we experience her. We'll spend the night in silence until after breakfast Monday. In the morning, we'll pray together, spend time alone, listening for what God might be communicating, and reflecting on what that means to our lives. We'll spend time sharing in the circle and close with a ritual of celebration and hope. Then we'll eat lunch and launch back into our normal lives. Sometimes people say "back to real life", but I believe all of life is REAL life, even when we don't appear to be doing much.

These times of open waiting, trusting, being, are a much-needed corrective to keep our lives in balance. As Christians we believe in serving, doing good, acting for social justice and peace. But we must also refill our souls from time to time, allow God a word in edgewise, so to speak. Those times keep the inner well flowing, giving us the strength, discernment, and courage to "do". It is one of my greatest joys in life to facilitate these times of retreat, of moving away from the noisy world, of tuning in to the One who wants to do more for this world than we can ask or imagine.

May our prayers on retreat touch each of you with blessing!