Will God really provide for you?
Join me in pondering the God of abundance in the Ten Acre Gill near to Penhurst Retreat Centre. (A ‘gill’ is a wooded ravine.) What resources might he have for you that he’s inviting you to notice and pick? How is he providing for you in unexpected and delightful ways?
I also share a simple but tasty recipe for wild garlic pesto.
Join me on retreat! My list of dates for 2024 and some of 2025 is available on my speaking page.
Join me in practicing the presence of God on the beautiful shores of the island of Iona, in the inner Hebrides in Scotland. God loves when we welcome his presence in our lives – he’s always there with us!
In the video I share this gorgeous Celtic prayer, as collected in the Carmina Gadelica:
Come I this day to the Father,
(Carmina Gadelica I, p. 69)
Come I this day to the Son,
Come I this day to the Holy Spirit powerful:
I come this day with God,
I come this day with Christ,
I come this day with the Spirit of kindly balm.
God, and Spirit, and Jesus,
From the crown of my head
To the soles of my feet;
Come I with my reputation,
Come I with my testimony,
Come I to Thee, Jesu – Jesu, shelter me.
Find out more about 7 Ways to Pray, including links for ordering and resources for small groups.
Jesus knows when we’re weary. He bids us to come and rest with him; his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
Join me at sunrise a few days after Easter in front of Iona Abbey in the Inner Hebrides in Scotland as we soak in these loving words of the Risen Jesus.
I loved this island so much I’m planning on leading another pilgrimage/retreat next year, Lord willing, from 31 March to 5 April. Mark your calendars!
As we move through the events of Holy Week, I invite you to enter into the “Gethsemane moment” in John’s gospel, from John 12. Some Greeks – simply meaning those who were not Jewish – appeared before several of the disciples and asked if they could see Jesus. This to Jesus signified that his hour had come, and he set his face to the cross.
Here is the link to the video where I lead this prayer exercise, hosted by Coracle.
This prayer exercise forms part of the online course that Waverley Abbey Trust produced on The Prayers of Jesus, complete with small-group guide.
Let me know if you use this prayer exercise, and if you’re willing, how God met you. May entering the story of Jesus and his hour enrich your faith in him and your love for others.
Want to make a change in the new year but not make a bunch of resolutions? Here are 3 simple but profound and life-changing spiritual practices you could incorporate into your life as we launch into 2024.
If you’d like a monthly boost for a fresh prayer practice, sign up to my monthly newsletter. I always give away some kind of great resource or gift too, and I don’t restrict the winner by geographical location.
Want me to lead you in a prayer exercise right here, right now? Check out my YouTube channel and let me know how you met with God; I so appreciate hearing your stories.
Thinking about choosing a word for the year? Here are my blogs on the topic. I love this practice!
May you know the presence of our loving God this day, this week, this month, and this year.
Happy new year! I’m glad to share this prayer for 2024 by George Dawson from the 1800s – still applicable today.
You might also want to consider three simple prayer practices you might want to add in the new year to strengthen your relationship with God. Read the blog hosted at God Hears Her here.
I pray you will have a peaceful and joyous start to the new year as you cling to the loving presence of God.
Today here in the UK I’ve learned that it’s National Poetry Day! This just so happened to coincide with me leading one of Coracle’s Space for God slots, where we coming together as a community to encounter God, and I led us in writing a pantoum, a kind of poem. (You are more than welcome to join the Tuesday and/or the Thursday cohort! Links for both on the Coracle website. If you would like to engage with this prayer practice through the Space for God video, it is here.)
I’ve been thinking about liminal space ever since Gabriel Dodd shared his excellent thoughts on the topic in his Space for God. I later that afternoon wrote a pantoum about my own encounters with liminal space—the already but not yet experience that we encounter so often in life as followers of Jesus.
Today I encouraged us to wrestle with and sink into a passage from Romans, which pulses with the already-but-not-yet:
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:22–27, NIV)
It’s deceptively simple to craft a pantoum—if you can jot down six phrases or lines, you have got it! I invite you to join in with this special practice:
How to create a pantoum:
I would love to hear from you if you engage in the practice, and if you meet God through it!
A prayer for you today:
May the mystery of God enfold us, may the wisdom of God uphold us, may the fragrance of God be around us, may the brightness of God surround us, may the wonder of God renew us, may the loving of God flow through us, may the peace of God deeply move us, may the moving of God bring us peace. Joy Cowley, Aotearoa, New Zealand as found in Geoffrey Duncan, compiler, A World of Blessing: Benedictions from every continent and many cultures (Norwich: Canterbury Press Norwich, 2000), p. 226.
Have just over a minute to breathe and pray? I welcome you to breathe in the love of God, the companionship of Jesus, and the advocacy of the Holy Spirit. Filmed in the beautiful setting of Mulberry House.
More prayer practices on my YouTube channel, and sign up for my monthly newsletter with its special prayer exercise.
Jesus loved his friends, and taught them how to pray. This prayer may be so familiar to us that we skim over it, but we can slow down and ponder each phrase for encouragement, inspiration, and delight. Join me in the amazing ruins of Waverley Abbey, the first monastery in Britain, as I lead us through this prayer.
This prayer exercise forms part of the online course that Waverley Abbey Trust produced on The Prayers of Jesus, complete with small-group guide.
Let me know if you use this prayer exercise, and if you’re willing, how God met you. May praying the words Jesus prayed enrich your faith in him and love for others.