Preparing for your Soul Spa
Set aside one hour.
Receive it as your gift from God to start the New Year.
*Find a place where you are comfortable.
*find a candle ( a floating candle is especially effective).
*have a lighter or matches at hand.
*Have a pen or pencil at hand.
*Take the telephone off the hook.
*Have a drink of water.
*If it’s helpful, clear your mind by making a to-do list of things you need to remember LATER
and can set aside for now.
*Make yourself comfortable in a position where it is easy to breathe deeply.
*Turn your attention to the retreat guide.
The Christmas packages have been wrapped, shared, unwrapped, and admired. Now in the space between the end of one year and the begining of another, Come away with me…To set our spirits in conversation with God’s spirit:
As it is written,
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
Nor human heart conceived,
What God has prepared for those who love him,”
These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words, not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. - 1 Corinthians 2: 9-13
Come away, and receive God’s gifts.
Beginning
*As you pray this opening prayer, hear God speaking to you through its words. Read through the prayer once.
I am, you anxious one.
Don’t you sense me ready to break
Into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
Can’t you see me standing before you
Cloaked in stillness?
Hasn’t my longing ripened in you
From the beginning
As fruit ripens on a branch?
I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am that wanting.
I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
And with the silence of stars I enfold
Your cities made by time.
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, Love Poems to God.
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*Take a deep breathe,relaxing and slowing your muscles as you receive the air.
*Take 2 more breathes, each a bit deeper and slower than the first. Become aware of the muscles in your shoulders and next, allowing them to relax with each breathe.
*Read Rilke’s prayer once more, slowly. Pause when a word or phrase catches your attention. Roll it around in your mind a bit. What awareness, insight, or question is God giving you in this word or phrase?
*When you are ready, move on to the next page.
Read the following words written to Timothy by his mentor, Paul. Fill in the first blank with your own name and the rest as God leads you in prayer.
To _________________, my beloved child: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God…when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in ______________ and _________ now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you….for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. -1 Timothy 1: 2-7
Breathe intentionally as you did before. With each breathe, lift a name, silently or aloud, and thank God for this person who has been a faith mentor to you. With one more breathe, lift your own name asking God to give you power, love, and the intentional will to make room for God’s gifts in your life.
Light the candle that you have prepared as a reminder of God’s promised presence.
When you are ready, pray this prayer by Francis Brienen:
God of all time,
Who makes all things new,
We bring before you the year now ending.
For life full and good,
For opportunities recognized and taken,
For love known and shared,
We thank you.
Where we have fallen short,
Forgive us.
When we worry over what is past, free us.
As we begin again
and take our first few steps into the future,
Where nothing is safe and certain,
Except you,
We ask for the courage of the wise men
Who simply went and followed a star.
We ask for their wisdom,
In choosing to pursue the deepest truth,
Not knowing where they would be led.
In the year to come, God of all time,
Be our help and company.
Hold our hands as we journey onwards
And may your dream of shalom,
Where all will be at peace,
Be our guiding star.
If there are things you need to leave behind as you enter a New Year, offer them to God now, asking for God’s help to release them. You may write them down and use the candle to burn them as a sign of release.
Read the following passage. Take your time. Re-read it if you’d like. Underline the words or phrases that catch your attention and return to them.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed….there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God, who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
-1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
Breathe intentionally as you did earlier. Let the rhythm of your breathing take on a deep natural rhythm. As you breathe in, ask God to lead you toward knowing your spiritual gifts. Listen to whatever comes, you may be affirmed in a gift that you expect or you may be surprised and challenged to consider a gift you were not aware of. They may or may not be gifts mentioned in the passage we read. As you breathe out, release any surprise, resistance, concerns, and offer to be open to God’s leading. Be aware of the candles flame as a sign of God’s dynamic presence.
As the conversation between your spirit and God’s Spirit finds its rhythm, Allow it be simplified in one phrase that can be lifted as you breathe in and out. This breathe prayer is a reminder of God’s gift to you that you may prayer anytime, any where.
Write this prayer, and any other words that will remind you of insights received in this retreat time, on your bookmark and plan to put it somewhere that you will regularly see it.
Ask God if there is someone you should share your insights with. Who might help you acknowledge and develop your gifts?
Finish your retreat by giving thanks to God for the time and arranging your next “meeting.” When and where will you make space dedicated to being fully present to God?
When you are ready to return to your everyday activities, Draw in a deep breathe inviting God’s Spirit to remain in your awareness before gently blowing the candle out and giving thanks to God once more.
For now we see in a mirror, dimply,
but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part;
then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope and love abide,
these three;
and the greatest of these is love.
-I Corinthians 13: 12-13
“Do what you honestly can,
rather than what you probably won’t.”
Larry Peacock.
