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. 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
Open-Ended Waiting
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 ten minutes.
A Reflection from Betty
Waiting is one of the most difficult pieces of a deep, inner spiritual journey. We want to outrun God, but our growth depends on consciously letting go of our fear and allowing our circumstances the space to teach us what God intends. This is hard because so much of our waiting is filled with anxiety and our own expectations of what should happen. Thus, it subtly becomes a way of trying to control the future as well as a way of setting us up for disappointment, discouragement, and despair. As long as we are still waiting in fear and anxiety, we will not experience growth. We will stay stuck because when we are fearful, we are disconnected from the Source. We are not trusting that whatever God brings will be exactly what we need.
It is important to understand that waiting is not passive and fearful but active and open ended. Active waiting is always a movement from something to something more. The secret of waiting is to be always alert, always waiting with hope, trusting that something new has been awakened within us—a work in us has begun. Open-ended waiting is filled with radical hope, trusting God’s perfect love to cast out our fear, knowing that all shall be well. The desires of our hearts will be fulfilled but fulfilled according to God’s perfect will and timing for our lives. The Hidden Life Awakened
Beloved, embrace me
in the dark night of my praying,
in the deep silence of my offering,
in the confrontation of my dying.
Beloved, enable me
by faith to know You without seeing You,
by hope to possess You without feeling Your presence,
by love to desire You above all desires.
Beloved, grant
that I might put all faith in love for You,
all hope in love for You,
and to know that all desires fail but one:
my desire to be loved by You.
BWS
A Powerful Spirit
Spend a little time now, letting the Living Word speak to your heart.
Divine Reading
Psalms 130, 62
Rest Quietly with God
Use your imagination to visualize Jesus sitting there with you. Tell Him what you desire so deeply. Will you hand that desire over to Him in love and trust totally releasing the outcome?
Reflective Writing
Journal whatever thought arises without filtering or censoring just as a child would. This is the indwelling Spirit speaking truth to you. Trust this for now.