To Friends of Carmel from Gillian Coxhead,
You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
For those who can, you are invited to join us is in spirit, for an hour of silent prayer this Wednesday 18thAugust 7pm to 8pm.
This month I have chosen a poem by Jessica Powers to reflect upon; ‘To Live with the Spirit.’ One of the lines reads:
‘To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover. It is becoming love…
This seems to take us to the heart of our faith, to the mission of Carmel that as we draw closer to God through living a life of prayer, we become transformed in love. We become love, or as John of the Cross puts it, now our only duty is love.
We take courage as we walk together, ‘where the wind of the Spirit blows.’
TO LIVE WITH THE SPIRIT
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener.
It is to keep the vigil of mystery,
earthless and still.
One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit,
strange as the winds will.
The soul that walks where the wind of the spirit blows
turns like a wandering weather-vane toward love.
It may lament like Job or Jeremiah,
echo the wounded hart, the matchless dove.
It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow
that emulates the freedom of the sky.
Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing:
it has cast down forever from its hand
the compass of the whither and the why.
To live with the spirit of God is to be a lover.
It is becoming love, and like to Him
towards whom we strain with metaphors of creatures:
fire-sweep and water-rush and wind’s whim.
The soul is all activity, all silence;
and though it surges Godward to its goal,
it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday,
the peace that is the listening of the soul.
Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit OCD)
1905-1988
I
Friends of Carmel at Holy Hill
Retreat Day
‘A Star shining with Great Splendour.’
Saturday 11th September 2021
11am to 4pm
At Holy Hill Hermitage and on Zoom
10.30 coffee
11am Sr Pat Welcome/introduction
11.10am Liturgy of the Word
11.20 Fr Matt Blake Reflection on the Gospel
12.00 Break
12.15 Gillian Coxhead ‘A Small House’
12.50 Exposition/Silent prayer
1.30pm lunch
3pm Tomas Maher ‘A Voyage of Encounter and Discovery’ John Moriarty
3.40pm Sr Pat
(The zoom will end at 4pm, those at Holy Hill are welcome to stay for a time of sharing)
To register: friendsofcarmel@gmail.com
