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Call
To Spiritual Formation of the Laity|
Someone once said that spirituality is about the process of having our inner sight restored so that we can see clearly. About fifteen years ago Archbishop Derek Worlock gathered together some members of the Emmaus Family of Prayer. We had been going through a process of discernment about the direction of the community and the sort of work that we undertook. We asked to meet the Archbishop and told him what we were doing. In his response to us, the Archbishop said that his understanding was that we were a community of Spiritual formation. In other words that our role within the Church was to help people open up to the realm of the spiritual. When we reflected on this it became clear that we had always been involved in this area of Spirituality. For many years we had run the Agape magazine as well as many other activities. But we sensed that the Lord had more in store. The magazine had been laid to rest so that we weren't in competition with Good News which at the time was progessing towards the magazine that it is today. We carried on running our days of renewal and conferences and Life in the spirit seminars, producing our own material. We became involved in an ecumenical outreach with two local Christian Communities and the 'Be Reconciled' conferences were born. These conferences arose from the deep need that we sensed for healing between Christian traditions in our area. They ran for as long as they needed to run and who knows when we may hear the call to take those meetings up again. The acid test of our spirituality is who we live our lives for Our spiritual journey also led us into work with homeless people and for many years a group within the community ran the Emmaus Homeless Trust. This was continued in the work at St Marie's Homeless project and members of the community are still involved in several homeless projects in Southport. For the acid test of our spirituality is who we live our lives for and who we align ourselves with. A group within the Community had always had a desire to run a retreat centre, an oasis of peace and rest where people could come and explore themselves and God. The Lord honoured this desire when about eight years ago we were invited to get involved in Sandymount House of Prayer which we now run. I worked part time at Sandymount for nearly seven years. The more I talked with people and prayed with them and shared their stories, the more aware I became of the desperate need there is within people to discover God. God is always present in everything. The sadness is that we don't open our eyes and see the presence of God all around us. Promoting spirituality in the Liverpool diocese So in the June of 2002 Archbishop Patrick Kelly released me from parish work and the 'Irenaeus project' was born. Along with a group of volunteers I work in Sandymount and all over the diocese to help people have the opportunities to pray, explore the Scriptures; reflect on what it means to be human and alive and to know the truth that God is with us. I work with men's groups, women's groups, groups of carers, parish groups, school groups, ecumenical groups and so the list goes on. The Irenaeus Project is an attempt to highlight the whole area of spirituality not just for those who can afford the luxury of a retreat centre, but for those who can't. It very much has its roots in, and is supported by, the Emmaus Family of Prayer. We're now looking into helping people explore ways to become spiritual directors. We hope to run courses on prayer throughout the Diocese over the next twelve months. It would be great in time to be able to afford to employ another full time worker for the project and maybe have a whole a group of people who work in this area. Fr Richard Rohr coming to England 2005 The most exciting undertaking at the moment is a conference that will take place on September 10th and 11th 2005. The title of the conference is 'Come and See.' It's an invitation to open our eyes and see the presence of God all around us, in our families, in creation. It's an invitation to see how God speaks and the challenges that brings - to recognise the God who is in the oppressed and the broken. It's an invitation to 'Come and See One of the major influences within the thinking of the Emmaus Family of Prayer over the years has been the American Franciscan, Richard Rohr. I'm delighted that Richard has agreed to be the main speaker at the gathering in Liverpool. If you add to Richard names like David Wells, John Bell, Gerald O'Mahony, Dympna Magee, Margaret Silf, Sarah Miller, Susy Brouard who will all lead workshops at the conference with music by CJM and mimes by Steve Murray, you can see why it promises to be so stimulating. If you want any more information about the Conference you can contact the Irenaeus Project at 31 Rosemary Lane Formby L31 3HA or phone us on 01704 834271. Please pray for us and for all the different areas of work that we're involved in and if we can help you in any way please do contact us.
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