Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts

Friday, February 17, 2023

RE-MEMBERING OUR LIVES: A HEALING LENT - online retreat begins February 26

For other offerings from Redmont Retreats this winter and spring, 
including some shorter, later-beginning Lenten retreats 
and one course-retreat, click here.
 

RE-MEMBERING OUR LIVES: 

A HEALING LENT

Sunday, February 26 * 

to Saturday, April 1 

CANCELED DUE TO COVID.

But click above (on the word "here")

for the other retreats, 

which don't start till March 8 and March 23.


(c) Jane Redmont 2016
OUR LIVES THESE DAYS

Three years into the COVID pandemic...

"I'm still emerging and reorganizing and reinventing."

"The pandemic for me was profoundly disorienting and dislocating -- and yet also profoundly orienting and locating."

"Everyone was isolated. My question became, how do we connect with other people when we can't connect physically?"

"People are grieving their way out of that isolation."
 
"I'm not in the same body I was three years ago. How I am in community, what I see in community. How I see the world. All these things have changed."
 
"It's not just the COVID pandemic. There's been a racial reckoning. A sharper awareness of the climate crisis. And there's still an epidemic of gun violence."

"It was a kind of re-awakening for me."
 
"I want to go back to the way it was before."

"How can we find new ways of being church?"

"I am looking for what attends to my soul. I have explored more. My life has become hybrid in more than one way. Technologically, physically, and spiritually, in my religious affiliation. I am involved in multiple communities."

"We're never going back to the way it was before."
 
 "I've had to rearrange my life -- including my inner life and my spiritual practices."

"It's been like one long Lent."

Does any of this sound familiar?

join us for

RE-MEMBERING OUR LIVES:

A HEALING LENT

(c) Jane Redmont 2019

What and How

Body

Earth

Time*

Memory

Community


These are basic realities in our lives. Whether or not we observe Lent, we live in our bodies, on this earth, in time, with memory, and in some form, in community.

This online Lenten retreat --not just for those who observe the season of Lent-- will go through the season of Lent with five themes or lenses, one for each week. After a welcome and introduction to our time together, we will journey with one theme every week. We will stay together sixth week of Lent, Holy Week, when the realities of suffering, injustice, death, trauma and transformation are so present, and where the path still unseen leads to an entire season of Easter. Resurrection.

Every Sunday, especially for those who observe Lent, I will offer a (written) biblical reflection inspired by the Sunday readings in the Revised Common Lectionary. For everybody on the retreat, at the beginning of the week, we will also have a simple mindfulness exercise related to our theme of the week.

During the week, the retreat will invite us, on the retreat blog, to ponder the week's theme --in the form of a journal, through a creative activity,  in gazing at an image or two or listening to a piece of music, in silent meditation, in prayer; there will be options from which you can choose. 
 
Every week, we will notice the present, but also re-member, becoming more deeply aware of how the five realities of body, earth, time (especially Sabbath), memory, and community have changed --or not-- in our lives. We will recall and see connections, and make connections we may not have before. Some of us will see that we are reweaving the frayed parts of our lives, but often with a new thread, a new color, a new piece of cloth --or, if you prefer another metaphor, repairing or sanding or shaping or rebuilding something made of wood or stone or clay.
 
Where and how
 
Online (resources, conversation) 
 and in your daily life (anywhere - home, work, outdoors, indoors).

Online:
 
 1)  On the retreat blog. All retreat materials (readings, meditations, spiritual exercises or invitations to practice, music, visual art) will be posted on the retreat blog as the retreat proceeds. At least three times a week, there will be words of wisdom, music, images, and spiritual exercises for you. 
 
There is a comments space on every post of the blog for you --if you wish-- to share reactions to the offerings of the week or experiences you have had with the theme of the week in your own life

The initial, one-time-only sign-on to the retreat blog is easy.* Once you have signed up a first time, the retreat blog will recognize you and you can check in any time. Only retreatants with have access to the blog, which is private and not searchable on the internet.
 
2) In live Zoom conversations. This retreat also offers a weekly 60-90 minute opportunity to talk with other retreat participants and with me (Jane, your retreat facilitator) about your experience with the week's theme and with the resources and spiritual practices of each week in Lent.  Your registration on PayPal includes options from which you can choose: A morning session, an evening session (both on weekdays), and, for any who really cannot make it on a weekday, a possible Sunday session.
    
For both of these online experiences, you will need a computer or tablet and a working internet connection. The bigger the screen, the better: while technically speaking you can view the retreat blog and use Zoom on your smartphone, I don't recommend it.
 
* Need technical help? Neither the retreat blog nor Zoom is complicated once you've done it once, and even the first time it's not hard. I send out detailed directions on how to sign on to the retreat blog and a link to hop onto Zoom. But if you need extra help and support, I'll be glad to walk you through your first time or to trouble-shoot with you should you run into a snag.
 
In daily life:

Your life, your location, your schedule: You can read --and gaze at, and listen to-- the retreat materials at any time of day or night, and you can pray and practice according to your schedule and lifestyle. 
 
It will be good for you to devote a little time every day to the retreat, but three days a week can also work. When and where you practice and pray is up to you. Experiment and see what works. The Zoom conversations will also provide support and ideas. Listen to others And don't hesitate to ask for help.
 
Registration and Cost
 
Registration and payment take place via PayPal secure link (below), which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal.

--You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.
--If you prefer making a donation via Venmo, please write me.
--A discount rate is available for those in financial hardship.
--Likewise, the benefactor rate, for those who have the means, helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.
--If even the discount fee is too high for you, please write me and ask about the possibility of a scholarship.
--Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.
 
 
 
Please pick one
Pick your weekly Zoom time
*IF* I offered a weekend Zoom, which could you attend?



Questions?
 
 
 
For other offerings from Redmont Retreats
 this winter and spring, 
including some shorter Lenten retreats
and one course-retreat,
click here.

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

ENTERING ADVENT: patience, impatience, and the present - a remote retreat

Here we are

Advent
, the beginning of the Christian year and the season leading up to Christmas, is full of paradoxes. It is a gentle season of waiting, but a season of prophetic warnings and invitations. It looks toward new beginnings and also toward the end of time. It is, as I have often said and as I preached on the first Sunday of Advent, both a time to enter God's patience and a time to enter God's impatience. To put it more casually, it can really mess with our sense of time.

Yet here we are, at the start of the season, with all this --and preparations for celebration of the birth of Jesus-- swirling around us and inside us, and in the readings appointed for the season, for those who use a lectionary.

Perhaps the most important thing we can do as we step into Advent --or as we wonder whether and how to enter the season-- is to make space, and time, to do so mindfully. To live Advent with care, in the present.

(c) Jane Redmont 2016

The retreat

Our "Entering Advent" retreat is a two-hour experience on Zoom, with time and space for quiet, music, gazing at visual art, and personal reflection and prayer.

It can serve as an oasis in this already busy holiday season of the secular world, or as a beginning of your extended Advent practice with some resources, guideposts, and practices - or both.

I am offering the retreat twice (with a third time possible upon request) to accommodate your varied schedules and time zones.

Wednesday evening, November 30, 2022 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time (4:00 pm Pacific Time)

        If there are sufficient requests, Wednesday evening, November         30 at 9:30 pm Eastern (6:30 Pacific) for you night owls of the East             Coast, early evening for you folks of the Western time zones.

Thursday morning, December 1, 2022 at 10:30 am Eastern Time (7:30 am Pacific for you early birds out there).

The retreat lasts for two hours.


At the end of the retreat, I'll also send you off with a few suggestions of Advent practices, which I'll have on a page that I can e-mail you as well as show on Zoom at the end of our time together.

Registration

The regular fee for the retreat is $30. If you can't afford this, a lower rate is available. If you are seriously broke, write me to request a freebie. If your resources are more abundant, a benefactor rate is available too.

Registration and payment are here:

Entering Advent 2022 - pick one rate
Make sure you pick a time!

 

Zoom and your favorite device

Our retreat will be in real time, on Zoom, so you'll need a computer or tablet.
The larger the screen, the better: while you can use Zoom on your smartphone, technically speaking, I don't recommend it because you won't see the images (both other participants' faces and the visual art I will share) as well as you would on a larger screen, and also because your fellow participants run the risk of seeing your face bounce around if your phone is unstable, which can be a distraction on a retreat meant to offer some slowness and stability.
I'll send out a Zoom link and instructions once you have registered. If you haven't used Zoom before, I'll be glad to help you ahead of time.

A Zoom retreat really can happen! I've led many such retreats in a variety of formats.

Questions? Concerns?

Please feel welcome to e-mail me here.

Note:

Because I am going on an extended family visit during the winter holidays, there will be no long blog-based Advent retreat this year. 

I am, however, already planning a long retreat for Lent, "Re-membering Our Lives." Publicity and registration for Lenten retreat offerings will be available by the end of January.



Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Remembering Forward: The Time of Advent (2017)

Remembering Forward:
The Time of Advent

an online retreat 

December 3 - 24, 2017

See below the photo
for information and registration.


Remembering Forward is an online spiritual retreat in the Christian tradition. It will accompany your daily life during the season of Advent, which prepares the way for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

An online retreat enables you to participate at home or any other place where you have a computer or tablet with internet access. You check in at the time of day or night that works for you. You can read, listen, gaze, meditate, and pray in a way that suits your schedule.

Twenty minutes a day is a nice rhythm, but even ten minutes can be helpful if you check in with any regularity. You can check in on your online retreat less often, or more often, than once a day, and for as long or short a time as you wish. It's up to you. The resources for the retreat will be waiting for you every day on the retreat site. (More information on the technical aspect of the retreat below.)


Remembering forward?

What is this, a time warp?

In a way, yes.

Advent is a season that challenges and plays with our sense of time.

It is a season turned toward the future:
~ the near future, in our waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus;
~ the hovering, known-and-unknown future, frightening or reassuring,
~ the long-term future, with the reminder that the Advent season takes the long view.
~ Advent heightens our sense of yearning.
~ With Advent comes the renewal of imagination and vision.
The season of Advent is also a time of remembrance:
~ For some this season and its memories bring joy. For others, this is a sad and difficult time.
~ Sometimes the season holds both delight and sorrow, contentment and emptiness.
~ Advent is a season of holy memory, in which we journey with people and stories from the past that are part of our living tradition and give us strength.
~ Advent is a time for returning to treasured traditions. It can also be a time for re-examining their place in our lives -- or for embroidering on old traditions.
Advent is full of apparent contradictions. 
It is the Slowdown Season and the Better-Wake-Up Season.

Advent 2017

This year, because of the location of the four Sundays before Christmas on the December calendar, we have the shortest possible Advent. (Last year we had the longest possible Advent.) The 4th Sunday of Advent, which we celebrate the morning of Sunday, December 24, is also Christmas Eve!

So we have a little less time than usual this year to pay attention to the season of Advent: exactly three weeks.

Let's spend this attentive time in community, on this retreat, together. Let it be a spacious time in an often pressured and busy season.


An online retreat? How does that work?

The retreat offers daily resources online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me, Jane, the retreat facilitator) has signed in.

In other words, the retreat blog is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Conversations between and among retreatants remain private.



~ "Do I have to talk to other people on this retreat? I'm a very private person."
~ "Can I get some support here? I want some company."


Answer to both questions:

Jane's online retreats offer you a choice; it is up to you to find your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.
You can and may remain private and just read the blog and use the practices and meditations on your own. Nobody will force you to speak or disclose who you are. Or you can and may take part in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. Conversation during the retreat takes place in writing, via the comments on the blog posts of the retreat blog. Please be prepared to observe confidentiality and kindness and to respect other participants' diverse experiences and outlooks.
Use the retreat according to your personality and your circumstances. The online retreat is like a room in which you are welcome to sit in the company of others and to be either visible or invisible.

What will I find on this retreat?

Every Sunday:

A meditation on one or more of the Scripture readings from the Revised Common Lectionary or the Catholic Lectionary, with reference to our retreat's theme.
Every Monday:
An invitation to a simple "seasonal slow-down" exercise in your daily life.
Midweek:
An invitation to reflect on and pray with some questions on "remembering forward" in Advent.
Every day:
Checking in daily will be like opening an Advent calendar. You will find each day a little gift: a piece of music or visual art, a commemoration of a saint's day, a bit of holy wisdom, or a remembrance or vision embodying Advent hope.
You can mix and match these daily and weekly observances.

Registration and payment

Registration is easy via secure PayPal link, which takes credit and debit cards too: you don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.

(If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)


The "Early Bird" rate applies if you register and pay any time before midnight on Thursday, November 30, whatever your time zone.

The regular rate applies from December 1 on.

If you are in a situation of financial stress, please write me and we can arrange for a discount, a payment plan, or scholarship. Or you can just check and pay the "hardship" rate below.

The "benefactor" rate below helps to offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.


Retreat fees (choose one)




Retreat designer and facilitator:
Jane Redmont is a retreat leader and spiritual director, theologian and pastoral worker, writer and writing coach. An Episcopal Christian, she was also formed in the Catholic tradition and has Jewish and Unitarian Universalist family roots. She has worked in campus, urban, and parish ministries, taught undergraduates, seminarians, and graduate students, and been involved in work for justice and in ecumenical and interreligious relations all her life. She serves as a Congregational Consultant for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and is the author of two books including When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life.
Questions? Concerns? Write me (Jane) here.