Speech of thanks to the key note speakers

Reflection and Thanks

Sue Dunbar

Each of our four speakers in some way alluded to their belief that they were not telling us anything new. Although there may be some truth in this, I certainly found that their presentations have stimulated my thinking. However they have shared themselves with us, as John O’Donohue describes, the “mystery of presence”. In presenting their topics to us each speaker has shared the mystery of his or her presence with us and we go away enriched. Thank you Denis, Linda and Eileen.

From the rich banquet that we have received today I have selected a reminder, a confirmation and a challenge from each speaker.

Denis Edwards: Discernment

Denis shared with us some wisdom from Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, Karl Rahner and Anne Carr and, of course, Denis Edwards!

· Reminder: The very listening in spiritual direction is an event of the Spirit.

· Confirmation: The Christian of the future will be a mystic.

· Challenge: Prayer as authentic praxis – becomes/is a mystical-political connection.

I was reminded of the words of Frederick Buechner:

“Every moment is a key moment and life itself is grace.”

Linda Walter: Change and Transformation

Linda introduced us to the grief curve and juxtaposed this with the Emmaus story.

· Reminder: The value of listening, “and so I listened”. The disciples were transformed by the “radically undefended listening of the stranger”.

· Confirmation: New life is the sequel of the despair that has been suffered.

· Challenge: If God is deeply loving then God feels anger, grief and pain.

The closing meditation was of two bronze images representing the death and resurrection of Christ. These seemed to me, to be nestled in both a heart shape and two giant ears.

I was reminded of the final verses of Mary Oliver’s poem, “In Blackwater Woods”:

To live in this world

You must be able to do three things.

To love what is mortal.

To hold it against your bones

Knowing your own life depends on it

And, when the time comes,

To let it go, to let it go.

Eileen Glass: Prophetic Dimension

Eileen delighted and challenged us with stories, illustrating the profound importance and enormous riches present in our stories.

· Reminder: Spiritual direction has an inherently prophetic dimension – God is present in all of life.

· Confirmation: The primacy of the graced story of each person is central to spiritual direction. We are all only one or two relationships away from the great stories of the people of God.

· Challenge: Create space to hear the stories which have been silenced in ourselves and in others.

I was reminded of a pithy saying whose source is unknown to me:

“The shortest distance between two people is a story.”

On behalf of the Gathering I extend our thanks to you, Denis, Linda and Eileen.

Smoking Ceremony to begin the Gathering

God of holy dreaming:  from the dawn of creation you have been in this ancient land.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

 

Your presence endures as the rock at the heart of our land.

Come as holy fire, and burn in us.

 

As life-giving Spirit, you breathe life into us and we become living beings.

Come as holy wind, and blow through us.

 

You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.

Come as holy truth and wisdom, and satisfy us.

 

We stumble in the darkness and wound your love.

Come as holy forgiveness, and free us.

 

Eternal Spirit within us and beyond us,

teach us to treat each other with dignity and respect.

For every person is your dwelling place and home.

 

Let us share in choice and action

your deep desire for justice and peace.

 

Let us in the spirit of forgiving

make friends with those we have harmed and failed to love.

 

Stay with us,

as we walk with others.

 

Look on us,

as we look others into life.

 

Listen to us,

as we listen others into speech.

 

and gift us,

as we learn to be instruments of your grace.

 

God of holy dreaming:  may Jesus’ words be ours, for this Gathering and for the Council:

I have come to cast fire on the earth and would that it were kindled.

 

 

 

Smoking Ceremony to begin the Gathering

Photos and reflections during the Gathering

AUSTRALIAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

(AECSD)

NATIONAL GATHERING

FRIDAY 30 JUNE & SATURDAY 1 JULY 2006

AT

TRINITY COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Smoking Ceremony to begin the Gathering

Commitment Prayer

Before we know it, before we seek it,

before we enter it,

thank you, O God for this journey beginning.

In faith we invite you to beckon us on,

that we may be your people

and you may be our God.

We commit ourselves to you

as we celebrate

this Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction,

in this time and place

and our ongoing conversations together.

We will risk hearing each other,

trust ourselves to each other in faith,

and await the presence of your Spirit

among us O God. Amen.

When in doubt,

I always assume

that God is at work;

that is, the person is pregnant.

Margaret Guenther

Council Members

Back row: John Stewart, Brian Gallagher, Philip Carter , Robin Pryor

Middle row: Elaine Smith , Stephen Truscott, Frank Daniels

Front row: Ruth Morgan, Lynette Dungan , Jill Manton , Anne Lane , Beth Roberton

The Interim Council

Back row: John Stewart, Brian Gallagher, Philip Carter , Robin Pryor

Third row: Kevin Canty, Michael Smith

Second row: Elaine Smith , Jill Manton , Mary Cresp

Front row: Joan Ryan, Deirdre Scott

Our Vision

Spiritual direction seeks to listen the life-giving

presence of God into articulation with the

individual and the faith-community.

We believe that the spiritual journey is unique to

each person and that God fashions and

transforms according to the secret call within us.

The ministry of spiritual direction is a sacred

trust, calling for the highest standards of

formation, practice and accountability.

This ecumenical Council welcomes the ministry

of spiritual directors who belong to the different

Christian traditions in which Christ continues to

minister through his Spirit.

Speakers: Denis Edwards. Eileen Glass, Linda Walter

A reading from Thich Nhat Hanh

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. Look deeply: I arrive in every second to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, in order to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive. I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly. I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond, and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda , all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda . I am the 12 year old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate, and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands, and I am the man who had to pay his “debt of blood” to my people, dying slowly in a forced labour camp. My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life. My pain is like a river of tears, so full it cries and laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.

Spiritual directors are not

agents, but instruments

to lead souls….

John of the Cross

There

is only one

guide in the darkness.

Spiritual nurturers help

people to turn

towards this

Guide.

Sandra Cronk

Mary Cresp and Philip Carter at the Dinner

Mysticism

is the art

of union

with reality.

Evelyn Underhill

It is easier

to gaze into the sun

than into the face of the mystery of God.

Hildegarde of Bingen

Above all, trust in the slow work of God,

We are, quite naturally,

impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We are impatient of being

on the way to something unknown,

We should like to skip

the intermediate stages.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability –

And that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.

Your ideas mature gradually –

let them grow,

let them shape themselves,

Don’t try to force them on,

As though you could be today

what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the

anxiety of

feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.