It's all hotting up now!

It's time to make time and spend time.

At my second meeting with Sue, the DDO, she told me that it is very important to begin to develop a dedicated prayer life as I progress on this journey of exploration. By this she means that I should now begin the Daily Office of prayer. 

To explain briefly, the Daily Office is time which is devoted to God and, at the relevant time of day to give thanks and praise for the life we lead, and to pray for and remember those who suffer, the world and those in authority, and along with readings from scripture, this act focuses oneself to tune into God and His being in our lives .

The Common Worship Daily Prayer book is the one mostly used and it gives the order of service for the 4 offices; Morning Prayer, Prayer during the day, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. You can take on all 4 offices if you wish or you can choose any of the offices, but the minimum is at least Morning and Evening Prayer.

So, I decided to begin with Morning Prayer, since I'm new to all of this praying at home business. I laid all my readings out last night, bookmarked the morning Prayer for Tuesday section and the scripture readings. I flew out of bed and showered and washed my hair earlier than usual so I could dedicate the time properly and not rush through it.

I lit a candle and began. All in all it took about 20 minutes and I really enjoyed it, it was nice to be able to concentrate on something so important without interruption, and to focus all my attention to the task.

It made me realise I will definitely need to set this time aside every single day, so the family are under orders to either join in or leave me in peace during this time so I can concentrate (they chose to leave me to it funnily enough!)

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Last week I enrolled on the JiF (Journey in Faith) course starting at the end of this month. It's a 30 week course on Wednesday evenings at Leicester. 

In 3 terms of about 10 weeks a term, the course breaks down thus:

Term 1 Exploring Faith
Sessions include an opportunity to consider our own faith journeys and an introduction to Theological Reflection.
Term 2 God’s Call and Our Response
 Sessions include an introduction to the Old Testament
Term 3 Development of the Church
Sessions include an introduction to the New Testament and Church Doctrine - what we say we believe.

It will help me greatly to understand more of the church and my own faith, I'm rather looking forward to starting!

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Next up is a meeting between Sue, my vicar John (or 'Incumbent' as is the preferred title) and me on 28th September, to discuss further my current exploration. I'm very much looking forward to that as the more of these meetings I have, the more strongly I feel that there is now some real 'meat' to my feeling of calling, that it's taking shape and becoming more and more an integral part of my life.

Sue also asked me if I have considered going on a retreat. That is, taking time out of the rat race (usually 3 or 5 days), and taking myself and my books, my bible and thoughts and all of my hopes and prayers to Launde Abbey in Leicester, to spend the time focusing on God's call to me, a time which is spent mostly in silence, prayer and reflection. I would really love to do this, as I believe it would be immensely helpful for me to just be there, and listen - really LISTEN to God, and what He is asking me to do with no distractions; no telephone ringing, no text messages, no television, no doorbell. I also believe my spirit will feel refreshed by this time away and that I'll come back with a renewed sense of purpose and clarity. 

I mentioned it to Mark and asked if he thought it might be possible for me to go, as I thought it a little selfish to do this, you know, put all the familial responsibility on him for 3 days while I go off on a jolly, but he assured me he doesn't see it that way and that it's important for me to be able to do this. He's great isn't he? What a lucky woman I am to have such a lovely, kind and understanding husband who supports me so selflessly.

Retreats are for anyone, 'churchy' or not, to be able to go and spend quiet time with themselves in a peaceful and tranquil setting, think of it as a facial for the spirit. Joining in is optional and you can take part in as much or as little as you want to, in fact if you want to just sit in the gardens and take in the beauty of nature for the whole time, fine. Joining in with the services and prayer time is also optional as the focus is in the word 'retreat'. A step back from the rigours of everyday life to get back in touch with yourself and your inner self. There is also the option of attending a 'Quiet Day', if you feel you can't spare the time for a full retreat.

There are of course numerous retreat centres around the country, but mine would be Launde Abbey. If you're interested to read all about making a retreat, click on the following link: http://www.launde.org.uk/whats.htm