I just spent last weekend attending Margaret Silf's Landscapes of Prayer retreat at the Centre for Ignatian Spirituality and Counselling and it was an unbelievable religious experience. A total high.
No, I didn't go into a trance or work myself into a frenzy as if I were one of ten thousand screaming fans at a rock concert. Neither did I ingest or do anything that induced my state of euphoria that has lasted past the retreat.
It started with a genuine desire to hear God's point of view on my life and I simply gave Him the time and space to talk to me in the silence.
I came to this semi-directed retreat with a question that was causing me some distress and a steely determination to be as open-minded as my stubborn streak would allow.
As Margaret led us through the nine landscapes from her book Landscapes of Prayer, I journeyed from a garden with a winter-dead patch into a cave with a lagoon of calm, beauty and light in its centre (much like the limestone hongs I visited off the east coast of Phuket).
Confusion gave way to clarity over the weekend as I let go of outdated ideas, past relationship hurts and misguided beliefs that have made themselves a comfortable home in my psyche.
As I meditated on some of the nine landscapes Margaret presented to the group, I found new life, keen insight and fresh inspiration.
I was drawn into a deeper intimacy with our amazing Creator as He invited me to trust Him with a child-like trust, one that bypasses my adult preponderance to fall back on known experiences and to question miracles.
D made a comment this evening that the intellect hinders one from really knowing God, especially when we engage in the academic pursuit of knowing God, not realizing that head knowledge can sometimes push us further away from God.
What I cherished about this retreat was the simplicity of the ideas presented and the subsequent invitation to find God in the beauty of the created world by revisiting familiar haunts of prayer in the mystery of stillness.
Ultimately, it was in allowing God to show me how much He loved me and the way He then proceeded to do so that blew my mind.
Contrary to what the world thinks, religious experiences are not that hard to come by, it just requires us to sit still, and in the ensuing silence, to let God do all the talking.
No, I didn't go into a trance or work myself into a frenzy as if I were one of ten thousand screaming fans at a rock concert. Neither did I ingest or do anything that induced my state of euphoria that has lasted past the retreat.
It started with a genuine desire to hear God's point of view on my life and I simply gave Him the time and space to talk to me in the silence.
I came to this semi-directed retreat with a question that was causing me some distress and a steely determination to be as open-minded as my stubborn streak would allow.
As Margaret led us through the nine landscapes from her book Landscapes of Prayer, I journeyed from a garden with a winter-dead patch into a cave with a lagoon of calm, beauty and light in its centre (much like the limestone hongs I visited off the east coast of Phuket).
As I meditated on some of the nine landscapes Margaret presented to the group, I found new life, keen insight and fresh inspiration.
I was drawn into a deeper intimacy with our amazing Creator as He invited me to trust Him with a child-like trust, one that bypasses my adult preponderance to fall back on known experiences and to question miracles.
D made a comment this evening that the intellect hinders one from really knowing God, especially when we engage in the academic pursuit of knowing God, not realizing that head knowledge can sometimes push us further away from God.
What I cherished about this retreat was the simplicity of the ideas presented and the subsequent invitation to find God in the beauty of the created world by revisiting familiar haunts of prayer in the mystery of stillness.
Ultimately, it was in allowing God to show me how much He loved me and the way He then proceeded to do so that blew my mind.
Contrary to what the world thinks, religious experiences are not that hard to come by, it just requires us to sit still, and in the ensuing silence, to let God do all the talking.
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