Welcoming Prayer Practice
For beginners and those needing a refresher as we move into the season of Lent.
Saturday, February 17th
10:00 am to 3:00 pm
The Welcoming Prayer is an active practice for use in conflicted situations in everyday life: a quarrel with a loved one, a hostile action from a coworker, road rage, and so on. When our feathers are ruffled, our buttons pushed, or an upset occurs, the Welcoming Prayer gives us a practice to release rather than stuff or act out afflictive emotions. We welcome God's presence and action in the present tumultuous moment.
REGISTER NOW
WHAT: This retreat offers a simple spiritual tool for deepening our relationship with God, self, and others.
Facilitated by commissioned presenter Ann Starrette & practitioner Nancy Bellamy.
WHEN: Saturday, February 17, 2024
10:00 am - 3:30 pm
WHERE: Starrette Farm Retreat, Statesville.
Directions to this private property follow your registration.
CLASS SIZE LIMITED
COST:$60. Includes materials, labyrinth prayer path, lunch and nacsks
TO REGISTER: email nancy@starrettefarmretreat.com
A BIT MORE:
Carla Pratt Keyes (pastor of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, 2019) says, "Lent provides us with a space to examine the stories we tell, to face the feelings behind those stories, to name the longing and pain and fear we feel and to learn from those feelings." As we enter Lent, Keyes challenges us to think about what truths we might uncover if we dare to examine the stories we tell ourselves. "The question,” she asks, “is will we go there?” I like her definition and challenge.
THE GOOD NEWS: The welcoming prayer practice gives us a simple little tool to "go there." The process helps us examine our lives, re-groove our brains, and renew our minds by erasing our interior commentary's constant "story-telling" chatter and prerecorded clichés — the mental static we've grown accustomed to. It’s called the human condition. We learn that it is not bad, not good; it just is.
However, there is something we can do about it. What we're after is the healing action and grace of the Divine Indwelling flowing from our center, a grace that, in time, with our cooperation, produces interior freedom amidst the challenges, chaos, and confusion we all encounter in life. If learning a little tool that supports letting go and opening space for God to dismantle the false-self system sounds appealing to you, please join us. You won't be disappointed.