Prayers and Poems from Our Contemplative Weekend Retreat

By By Anne A. Simpkinson, Director of Communications

Posted on 8/1/2017

Last weekend, Program Associate Claire Rusowicz and I welcomed 35 individuals who came to Mercy by the Sea to “rest in God.” The three-day silent retreat offered Centering Prayer sessions; a labyrinth walk; Saturday night gathering with chants, prayers and reflection; and much quiet time for walks on the beach and grounds, reading, gazing at the artwork that graces the main building; and private prayer.

Many of the participants asked for copies of various quotes, poems and prayers that were used throughout the retreat. Here is a sampling:

“Everything that is, is in God. There is nothing outside of God. ... There is no distance between us and God. Where there are barriers creating distance between us, they are our barriers, not God’s. God is like a light in the heart that nothing can extinguish. We can never lose God because God is twinned eternally with the soul.” - John O’Donohue, poet, priest, author

Uncrowd my heart, oh God
Until Silence speaks
   in your still small voice;
turn me from the hearing of words,
and the making of words,
and the confusion of much speaking,
to listening
    waiting
    stillness
    silence.
- Thomas Merton, can be found in Esther de Waal’s book, Lost in Wonder, Rediscovering the Spiritual Art of Attentiveness

You don’t have to look for anything, just look.
You do not have to listen for special sounds, just listen.
You do not have to accomplish anything, just be.
And in the looking,
   and the listening,
   and the being, find
   Me.
-Ann Lewin, poet