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Contemplative Weekend Retreats
A series of weekend retreats to help you be more attentive to God’s loving presence in your life and in prayer through contemplative seeing, listening and reading.
Three Weekends. Three Retreats. In Person or Online
We invite you to join us in a series of weekend retreats to learn how to connect to God through the art of contemplative seeing, listening and reading. These talks will be made available for later viewing to all those who register. The talks will be led by The Carmelite Retreat team and Audrey Hamilton.
In each of the weekend retreats, you will learn different skills and understand how poetry or photography can help you connect with God. Learn how to approach reading, listening or taking photographs in a contemplative way and be given time to practise this. You will also be shown how to pray with one of your images or piece of prose you have chosen.
We invite you all to join us either in person as a weekend resident or as an online participant – united in heart and soul, together for the fresh outpouring on us of the joyful experience of God.
‘Resting in the Word’: A Contemplative Weekend Retreat
Meet some of our Speakers
Fr Alex Ezechukwu, OCD
Fr. Alex is a Carmelite priest and serves as the prior of the Carmelite community at Boars Hill, Oxford. Fr Alex is a trained spiritual director with many years of pastoral experience in guidance in the spiritual life. He holds a Licence in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome. Fr Alex also serves as the co-director of Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality.
Audrey Hamilton
Formed in both the Ignatian and Carmelite traditions, Audrey has been working in the field of spirituality for over fifteen years. Her most recent role was in Spirituality Outreach at the London Jesuit Centre (formerly Mount Street Jesuit Centre) but prior to that she combined a volunteering role on their spirituality team with full time employment in a busy commercial environment. Now retired, she assists the friars at Boars Hill with various spirituality programmes, as well as offering spiritual direction and facilitating contemplative prayer sessions. She holds a Masters Degree in Christian Spirituality from Heythrop College (University of
London).
Contemplative Weekend Retreat Overview
This series of weekend retreats will help us to be attentive to God’s loving presence in our life and in our prayer as we contemplatively see, listen and read.
To help us to see contemplatively, we shall use photography* and works of art.
To help us to listen contemplatively, we shall consider the power of stories and poetry.
To help us to read contemplatively, we shall ponder God’s word in Sacred Reading / Lectio Divina.
Each weekend stands alone and may be attended as such, but taken together they weave a common thread of helping us to take a ‘long, loving look at the real’**.
* no photographic skill or equipment is required beyond a smartphone with camera, though feel free to bring a digital camera if you wish)
**Cf. Walter Burghardt, ‘Contemplation: A Long Loving Look at the Real’ in: George W. Traub, An Ignatian Spirituality Reader (Chicago, IL: Loyola Press, 2008) pp. 89-98. Originally published in 1989.).
Contemplative Weekend Retreat Schedule
Date: May 27-29
Time: Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime (UK)
Venue: Online / Priory
Led by: Audrey Hamilton
Suggested donation: £40 (online) / £65 (In-person)
These talks will be made available for later viewing to all those who register.
This retreat is part of a series of weekend retreats. Each weekend stands alone, with its own theme, but all are connected by the contemplative dimension and offer a different perspective to help us live in continual awareness of God’s presence. Through ‘contemplative seeing’ we will explore photography and works of art to help us see ‘with the eyes of the heart’, finding God’s beauty and goodness in perhaps unexpected places. And just as we will learn how to pray with a painting, we will also explore how to pray with the photographic images that we receive as we go on our contemplative walks (please note that no artistic knowledge is required, nor is there a need for any special photographic equipment– a basic camera phone will suffice)
Date: June 24-26
Time: Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime (UK)
Venue: Online / Priory
Led by: Carmelite Retreat Team
Suggested donation: £40 (online) / £65 (In-person)
These talks will be made available for later viewing to all those who register.
This retreat is part of a series of weekend retreats. Each weekend stands alone, with its own theme, but all are connected by the contemplative dimension and offer a different perspective to help us live in continual awareness of God’s presence. Through ‘contemplative listening’ we will explore how and to what/to whom we listen as we open ourselves to listen ‘with the ears of the heart.’ We will engage with poetry and music to help attune us to God who speaks into our silent listening.
Date: July 22-24
Time: Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime (UK)
Venue: Online / Priory
Led by: Audrey Hamilton
Suggested donation: £40 (online) / £65 (In-person)
These talks will be made available for later viewing to all those who register.
This retreat is part of a series of weekend retreats. Each weekend stands alone, with its own theme, but all are connected by the contemplative dimension and offer a different perspective to help us live in continual awareness of God’s presence. Through ‘contemplative reading’ we will explore the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, the Word of God alive and active, ever creating, ever restoring. Time will be given for both private and group practice of this way of praying.
