Our prayer is that On Retreat will help you break from habituated patterns of mind and frantic activity, make more space for God, and step into a new way of seeing, believing, and abiding.The descending way of humility is a movement towards our true self-realization. Each retreat will focus on a healthy body, a serene mind, and a powerful spirit. Your devoted guide will be modern day Christian mystic, Betty Skinner.

Affirming the Hope Hidden Within You~Cathy and Kitty

Watchful Attentiveness

A Healthy Body

Do a few simple stretching exercises to energize your body, then silently integrate the inner peace of your practice for a few minutes.

A Serene Mind

Begin this portion of your time with God by sitting with a warm cup of coffee, tea, or water with lemon in a comfortable chair in a quiet place with your Bible close. Light a candle as a symbol of God’s presence with you.

Opening Prayer

Let Betty’s lovely Centering Prayer video help quiet and refocus your mind or read it on page 53 of our book, The Hidden Life Awakened. Listen for His voice in silence for a few minutes.

For Reflection

The expectation of Advent is anchored in the event of God’s incarnation; anchored in the gift of God’s love to us in the coming of the Christ child. This gift of love in Christ should be awaited in prayer, remembered with beautiful Scripture, liturgy and song, and contemplated with watchful attentiveness for His coming to us in moments of heightened perception.

Moments of heightened perception can happen at any time, moments when time seems temporarily suspended, and we are in harmony with the whole of creation. They are ethereal moments of beauty that convey a different order of knowing. There is a deep sense of communion as though we were being invited in the gentlest, most reticent of ways to respond. To be caught up in such unpredictable moments of love and wonder is an expression, an experience of truth. It is the Incarnation, Immanuel, God with us.

A Reflection from Betty

A holy dimension,
an infinite shimmer.
Lifting the veil of the known,
peace flowing through a pure heart.

The persistent yearning that sweeps us all is a yearning to be known as we are and to be loved. When the wave of this yearning swells in our hearts and its crest is infused by wondrous Light, all our barriers are pushed aside. Beauty awakens within us. A momentous reality of God trembles through our veins, opening a glimpse of the Eternal. God answers with Love our trembling awe. Then comes a quiet wondering – how could we have lived in the shimmerings, the whispers, the intimations of such a Great Beauty and missed it? The Hidden Life Awakened

A Powerful Spirit

Spend a little time now, letting the Living Word speak to your heart.

Divine Reading

Psalm 19  The Passion Translation

Rest Quietly with God

Use your imagination to visualize Jesus with you in those moments of heightened perception you have experienced, even as a young child. May this simple practice transform your heart to a place of gratitude as you remember that in all things, He “is with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20

Reflective Writing

Journal every thought that arises without censoring as a child would. This is the indwelling Spirit speaking truth to you. Trust this for now.