In our service this week (re-watch it here) we talked about retreats, and over coffee we talked about possibilities and places that offer retreats, especially in this season.
There are a variety of things on offer:
Retreats – these are typically two different types – an organised, led group retreat, often on a particular theme, and individually guided retreats, where you mostly do your own thing, meeting with a guide perhaps once a day to reflect with.
Quiet Days – like a mini retreat, sometimes part of a day, sometimes a whole day
Local resources
Weekly meditation group
Each week in Lymington and Pennington, on Tuesdays at 11am, there is a weekly meditation group on zoom. All are welcome to join us, check weekly news sheets for info.
Daily Prayer
Daily zoom prayers, in Pennington and Lymington, Monday to Saturdays, 9am, for about 20 minutes. All welcome to join us, check weekly news sheets for info.
Dominican Sisters of St Joseph
At Shirley Holms, the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph are based at the Priory, and offer a rhythm of prayer.
Online prayer resources
There are various websites and facebook pages offering daily prayer resources. This is a tiny selection!
Lectio 365
Created by the leaders of the 24/7 prayer movement. Lectio 365 offer Daily prayer and scripture, website and app. This is one that you can read or listen to.
Pray as you go
The Pray as you Go daily prayer app / website, created by Jesuits, based on Ignatian prayer. It’s a framework for your own prayer. This is one to listen to, and lasts about 10 minutes.
They also offer retreat resources to follow at home on your own, for instance this one for Lent 2021:
https://pray-as-you-go.org/retreats-and-series/
Sacred Space
Sacred Space offer daily online prayer, text based website prayer, inspired by Ignatian prayer.
They also offer online retreat resources, for instance a Covid 19 ‘isolation’ retreat
Centre for Action and Contemplation
Many of you may have read books by Richard Rohr. His centre offer daily meditations by email. You sign up to receive these here:
Church of England
- Text of daily prayers and collects are shared on their facebook page.
- To listen to a service of Daily prayer, or to read the full text:
- There are also various prayer apps that you can download from here.
Retreat Centres & Quiet Days
St Beuno’s – North Wales
This is the place that I referred to in my sermon. It’s a bit like a Hogwarts in North Wales, the Jesuit Spirituality Centre. They’re offering some online retreats at the moment, with a mix of lengths. These are mostly individually guided retreats.
Lee Abbey – Devon
Lee Abbey in Devon often has group retreats and themed weekends/ midweek programme. They are offering a variety of these online this season, many of these are themed retreats:
Wisdom Centre – Romsey
This is a local centre that offers various quiet days and other resources. They have an online quiet day on 13th March, 2021.
Hopeweavers
Hopeweavers is a local disperse Anglican religious community, gathered around stillness, silence, prayer, creativity, conversation and food. (Rachel is one of the members of this community). In this season they offer online quiet days, typically 10am-1pm
Ignatian Spirituality Centre – Glasgow
Retreat centre based on ignatian spirituality, including an online Lent retreat: https://www.iscglasgow.co.uk/lent2021.html
The Retreat Association
The retreat association is the national Christian organisation set up to help people find ways of exploring and deepening their journey with God through spirituality and prayer. They have links to all sorts of organisations across the UK offering retreats.
In particular, they have gathered a list of various online retreat and quiet days – find out more here.
Spiritual Direction
A Spiritual Director, or Spiritual Guide, or Soul Friend, is someone who accompanies you on your spiritual journey, helping you to explore your faith, to see where and how God is at work in your life, and to respond to him in your own way. He or she may be a lay person or ordained, and possibly a member of a religious community.
Your Spiritual Director won’t ‘direct’ you, but will help you to find the right direction for your life; as well as listening to you and to the Holy Spirit, he or she may suggest particular approaches to prayer, and other spiritual practices, for you to try. Once you have settled into the relationship, you will perhaps meet together for up to an hour every couple of months, probably in the Spiritual Director’s home. All that is shared will remain confidential. Most won’t make a charge, but will generally accept donations.
For more information, or to find a spiritual director, please look at our diocesan spiritual direction page. If you’re looking for a spiritual director, Sarah Salisbury is the network administrator for this diocese, and can help to match you with a director.