Still Waters News. 26th April 2018

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1 Still Waters News 26th April 2018 In this Newsletter: Introduction, Reminders and News p1 The Benedictine Rhythm of Days p3 The Retreat p3 Book Study p7 Morning Meditation Information p8 Administration and Support p8 Upcoming Dates p9 Appendix p10 Welcome to the (late!) April Still Waters newsletter. I am writing this in the local library which seems to be full of noise and people talking. I am reminded yet again how very hard it is to find spaces in todays world that have silence and an appreciation for silence. I hope that the words and images you read and see in this newsletter help you in your search for the God of your understanding and the deep silence in which we all dwell. In this newsletter is an account of our recent retreat at Jamberoo Abbey and a summary of the input from Sr Magdalen, one of the Benedictine nuns at the Abbey. There is also a short reflection by Linda and some other contributions coming out of our weekend. The retreat was a special time to connect and to be together. It helped us put faces to names and flesh on this dispersed community. Twenty people attended the retreat and I think I am right in saying that everyone found something positive in the weekend. Relationships were strengthened and the Divine s peace and serenity encountered. During the weekend I was very conscious of the over 25 people who could not attend for various reasons. You were held in prayer and heart. One of the results of the retreat has been to ask whether names and contact details could be made available between people. As you know we have kept names and contact details private and we will continue to do so. However, if anyone is happy to share their details please let me know and I will create a contact list for the community. It goes without saying that this list will not be shared with anyone else! 1

2 I also draw your attention to the changed prayers for morning meditation via conference call. After a review and taking on board people s feedback we have made some slight changes and will be beginning a once a week evening prayer and meditation. The Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6.30 am rhythm continues and there will now be a Wednesday 7.30 pm prayer and meditation. The prayers, the times and how to log-in are in this newsletter. We begin the new rhythm this Monday the 30th of April. Also, we begin our book study on the 9th of May. Please see the section below, on page on the book including questions for reflection for your own private reading or if you are going to join the study groups either in person or on-line. Finally, please check out the upcoming dates and information for Quiet Days at Batemans Bay and the retreat planned for the beginning of September at Potato Point. Vision To be a community of Christ totally attentive to seeking God Intent To create space for silence and attention in daily practice and communal life To be an inclusive community of fellowship and formation To serve others and creation in simplicity and gentle care three core commitments listening, stability conversion of heart Thank you so much to everyone for your presence, prayers and practice. Both Linda and I firmly believe contemplative communities with people dedicated to peace, simplicity and deep listening are so very important in this beautiful and broken world. If you have anything you would like to contribute to the next newsletter your contributions can be sent to: stillwatersccommunity@gmail.com. With blessing, peace and love Rebecca We were born with silence, and as we grew up we lost the silence and we were filled with words. We lived in our hearts, and as time passed we moved into our heads. Now the reverse of this journey is enlightenment. It is the journey from the head back to the heart, from words back to silence; getting back to our innocence in spite of our intelligence. ~ Eckhart Tolle Friendship is a sheltering tree. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge 2

3 The Benedictine Rhythm of Days Linda On retreat at Jamberoo recently we learnt, or were reminded, that the Benedictine rhythm of days, the Divine Office, re-links us to our own centre. No matter what we may be doing the call to prayer at regular intervals during the day draws us back to our essential relationship with the mysterious silence dwelling at the very heart of reality. The Office, the commitment to and practice of regular prayer and meditation, becomes a re-minder. True perspective is restored, the ego can settle into its proper function of serving the Self, discordant patterns of living become more harmonised with a simple and joyful daily round of contemplation even as we work. The noise and fragmentation of life today can find a way towards stillness, silence and simplicity when we listen to the interior call to prayer through our days. Our regular practice of meditation, particularly in community, recovers our balance and stability, such that we offer that equilibrium to the world simply by continually returning to our centre; to the Christ within. The Retreat On the weekend of the 20th of April 20 of us gathered at the Benedictine Abbey at Jamberoo. It is a place very familiar to some of us but for others it was a new experience. The Abbey is set halfway down the escarpment behind Jamberoo so it has a wonderful mountain air feel about it as well as the praying presence of the Benedictine nuns. They are a community of contemplatives so it was a fitting place to hold our first retreat. Over the weekend there was a mix of alone and quiet times, group sessions, community meals and silence. We meditated together each morning and evening and there was the option to join in with the nuns during their communal prayer. There were three group sessions. Two were led on Saturday by Sr Magdalen, one of the Abbey nuns, and the third session was held on Sunday morning where we reflected on the weekend and the talks. The theme of Magdalen's talks was Silence and Benedictine Community. In her first talk she shared her perspective on Benedictine community and the practice of silence. In her second talk she shared more of her personal story and the experience of living in a Benedictine community. During the last morning of the retreat we shared our impressions and remembrances of her talks. What is below is a compilation of those remembrances taken from two peoples notes of that sharing. So this has been through a number of filters! 3

4 What is below is offered to help us re-member and access the shared wisdom of the weekend and as an offering to those in the wider Still Waters circle, particularly those who would have liked to have attended the retreat but were unable to do so for various reasons. Given the filters and the fact that Sr Magdalen has not written or edited what is below it is perhaps worth remembering that these are not the definitive statements on the nature of Benedictine community! They are just impressions and ideas from retreat participants. They are also in no particular order. I have not tried to fill out the statements or explain any further. Perhaps they can be taken as prompts for more reflection, prayer and conversation. There is a lot to ponder and digest. Please take what you like and leave the rest. Responses by retreat participants to talks by Sr Magdalen Sr Magdalen began with this quote: There is a way between voice and presence where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens. With wandering talk it closes. -Rumi- Benedictine monks practice two type of silence - restraint of speech and inner silence. This practice of silence creates room for the other to be and to grow. The first word of the Rule of St Benedict is listen. To listen we need to be silent. 4

5 A vocation to living in a Benedictine monastic community is discerned by asking three questions: - 1. Does the person have a deep longing for God? 2. Does the person have a love of the Divine Office (the sung communal prayers) and 3. Does the person have a love of humiliation? (As in do they have an appreciation for being set back on the backside!. * Humiliation come from the same word as humus. It is about earthiness, humanness, the fruitfulness of compost). Difficulties arise in all communities where there are people involved. The Rule of St Benedict helps you to be in community without killing each other! Living in community is possible with a way, a guide. The Benedictine way is not for everyone. The essence of the Rule is this and that. It is flexible, allowing for the breadth of human behaviour and needs, with guidelines. It is non-dualistic. It s values are charity and love The Benedictine vows are obedience (to heed/hear/ear), stability and conversatio morum (conversion of heart/transformation) The Rule gives space for the weak and provides challenges for the strong. Never stress the weak. Discipline in the Rule is well explicated! It was written in the early 500 s AD and for a particular time and circumstances. Challenges the emerging Christian monastic communities faced were the breakdown of culture, roaming monks and nuns who did not settle and no police force or legal system as we would understand them today. Threats to the community would also have been what the individual brought into the community including their own baggage. The community itself had to manage everything to do with maintaining a safe, functioning, healthy and self-supporting monastic community. What if you don t/can t respect rule? Despite the detail and the cultural circumstances, beneath the words of the Rule is a flowing river of love. The Rule of St Benedict is a flexible guide and perhaps our community needs such a guide given that Benedictine monastic communities have survived over the long-term. How important is the rule? Are there aspects of the Rule that might apply to Still Waters? Joan Chittister, O.S.B has written a commentary on the Rule which may be useful. ( The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century 2010 Cross Road Publishing Company) 5

6 When you have people living in community there are irritations, human foibles and problems. These are all grist for the mill. It is by working with and through the irritations (mostly with ones own inner work) that the beautiful pearl is created. Disillusionment is inevitable and this is good! Through disillusionment idealisation crumbles and the veil falls. We can then see more clearly. Disillusionment is not about despair. It is about being real and seeing reality. Through disillusionment true hope can spring up. We have disillusionment with God - why do bad things happen?. We have disillusionment with self and circumstances which can we project onto the other. We come into situations with wants, desires and expectations. We can have rose coloured glasses. Expectations are the next disaster/resentment waiting to happen. Self examination is important - what baggage do I bring to the situation? It is important to let each other be, to allow the projected material to settle, to create space. We can take a breath and shut our eyes - to give time for something to change. A love of humility, of humiliation, (see above * explanation) is necessary to grow and provides the opportunity for growth. Nuns are no different from the rest of us. Facing our illusions helps us to grow. We can always go deeper and can always grow. Being honest and transparent helps issues to be resolved. Honesty, when used appropriately, can be a tool to aid growth and relationship. Aim to do everything right but know we get it wrong sometimes. Decisions in the community are made through consultation but the Abbess/Abbott stands as the one who points to Christ/God and has the final authority. It is a six year journey of formation before a person takes full/solemn vows. Its is not necessarily an easy journey. Spiritual direction and teaching are part of belonging to a Benedictine order. The journey takes staying with the process. Where ever we are, alone or with others, we are already a community. We are a community of flesh and blood, organs, cells, atoms, atomic particles and quantum particles. At that level we are a community of connected energies in our deepest self and with the rest of the created order. We are a community with the earth, the planets and the stars. We are made of star dust. We are never separated or isolated. When nuns bow to each other at the end of the Divine Office they are acknowledging the Divine within, the Christ within. It is similar to the Indian namaste greeting. It is similar to the sharing of peace during Christian worship. There is a way between voice and presence where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens. With wandering talk it closes. -Rumi- 6

7 Book Study The book is The Cave of the Heart: the Universal Call to Contemplation by Cyprian Consiglio. The chapters in the book are: The Universal Call to Contemplation; Jesus on Prayer; St Paul on Prayer; Continual Prayer; Pure Prayer; The Soul s Ascent to God; Put Your Mind in Your Heart and Lectio Divina: the Beautiful Names of God. We hope that by engaging with a books such as this one we may broaden our understanding, build spiritual friendship and community and be inspired to live the contemplative life in the midst of our busy and active lives. As I have said before this book is not the bible on contemplation. It is just one perspective from one faith tradition to help us engage. However, Consiglio is very broad and inclusive in his language and experience. There will be two groups looking at this book here at Moruya and Batemans Bay. For those of us who are at distance the plan is to discuss this book on an on-line forum. I have created a blog page attached to our web page and made it only accessible by those who are members. The idea is to have the same 3 simple questions to answer in regards to the relevant chapter or section and post our answers. Please let me know if you would like to participate and I will give you the log-in details. The plan is to have a very simple, easy, way to engage with the book. Questions for Reflection and sharing: 1. Was there something in the chapter that spoke to you particularly, in a helpful way? 2. Was there anything that jarred or you struggle to understand? 3. Does this chapter draw you closer into the cave of your heart? If so, how? 7

8 26th April 2018 Moruya Anglican Church Morning Meditation Prayers On Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at 6.30 am and on Wednesday evenings at 7.30 pm the community meditates together. This happens via a conference call. Currently around 6 to 10 people phone in. All are welcome. On the last page is a simple outline of the prayers. How to call in: Option 1 Call When prompted enter the access code and follow the prompts Option 2 Go to the web site Click on the "Join Meeting" tab and enter the access code and follow the prompts NB: This only works with the latest version of the Google Chrome web browser. Option 3 Download the "freeconference" app from your app store It is orange with a white Asterix Once you have installed it and set it up you can enter the call by opening the app, going to the bottom of the screen and simply entering the access code and follow the prompts. Very importantly, if your phone plan does not include national long distance calls you will be charged by your telecommunications provider. However, using the freeconference app or website only uses your internet data. Please be on-line by 6.25 am of 7.25 pm. Administration and Support If you would like to make a donation to the parish, in support of Still Waters, that would be very appreciated. Currently the parish of Moruya financially support the community so any contribution would be gratefully received but it is not required. We have the bank details below as some people have asked that they be available. Please give only if you feel called to and are able to do so. The bank details for direct transfer and debit are below: Bank Details: National Australia Bank (NAB) Name: Anglican Church of Australia, Parish of Moruya BSB: Acc: Please note Still Waters in the note/subject line. Thank you! 8

9 Upcoming Dates In place of these twice monthly gatherings we will try something different. The plan is to hold three quiet days over the rest of this year. They will be held on a Saturday between and 4.00 pm. The venue will be St Joseph's Convent, David St, Batehaven NSW. This is a very small convent in a suburb of Batemans Bay but it is short walk to the beach. We will have the use of the guest facilities and the chapel. The quiet days will be an opportunity to be in peace and silence but to also share a meal, discussion, meditation and prayer. Quiet Days 19th of May 28th of July 10th of November September Retreat 31st August to 2nd of September Potato Point An Evening Grace Come, sit at our table. Be present in the bread we break and share. It is our daily bread lifted out of both grace and struggle. It is the breed of compassion and joy, sorrow and courage. We bless you who have a journeyed with us through the hours of this day. Now is evening, and the day is almost spent. Come to our supper table. Be our guest. At this vespers hour light the lamps of our hearts and attend our deepest hungers. May it be so! Macrina Wiederkehr 9

10 Morning and Evening Prayers Morning Meditation The Spirit of the One who creates the universe dwells silently in our hearts and is loving to all. Glory be to God, source of all being, eternal Word and Holy Spirit as in the beginning, so now and forever. Amen The night has passed and the day lies open before us: Let us pray with one heart and mind. May we listen deeply with the ear of our heart and may we attend to the present moment in peace and gratitude. Reading 20 mins silent meditation The blessings of heaven the blessings of earth, the blessings of sea and sky. On those we love this day on every one the gift of heaven, the gifts of earth, the gifts of sea and sky. We pray for the earth We pray for the people of the world We pray for those in any need, sickness or trouble We pray for ourselves, our friends and our families May we be blessed with peace and be channels of peace Amen Evening Meditation The Lord of all grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen Glory be to God, source of all being, eternal Word and Holy Spirit as in the beginning, so now and forever. Amen The day is now past and the night is at hand Let us pray with one heart and mind May we listen deeply with the ear of our heart and may we attend to the present moment in peace and gratitude. Reading 20 min meditation Lord it is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God The night is dark. Let our fears of the darkness of the world and our own lives rest in you. The night is quiet. Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace. The night heralds the dawn. Let us look forward expectantly to a new day, new joys new possibilities. In your name we pray. Amen 10