Allowing God to be Free – Intensive Silent Meditation Retreat 

To be free ourselves we have to learn to set God free, free to lead us and love us. You could think of the days we spend together in this retreat as an experience of deeper silence and solitude in closer community. The whole retreat is conducted in silence, sustained by a stable daily rhythm in common. The scaffolding of each day is provided by eight periods of meditation. The silence is only broken by a talk from the retreat leader, a 15 minute meeting with a mentor and a contemplative Eucharist each day.

The retreat is designed for people who are already beginning to know the transformative effect of twice-daily meditation in their lives. It requires full commitment and participation, but will be richly rewarded. If you are unsure whether it is right for you at this point don’t hesitate to talk it through with Liz Watson by contacting her at lizmeditates@gmail.com.

Important Information

This retreat is a more intensive retreat and provides a rare opportunity to benefit from the sustained silence and stillness of meditation over an extended period. In order to participate you should already have a regular meditation practice and should be familiar with the Essential Teaching of the Community.

This retreat is an opportunity to grow in the silence and stillness of meditation and will be a transformative time with long-term benefits. It is required that you attend the whole retreat: and therefore, that you do not arrive late nor leave early as this disrupts the group. 

In the embodied practice of our communal meditation times insight into our relationship with Christ deepens and we see how this is lived in commitment to each other as we grow in self knowledge.  Each day there are seven sitting meditation sessions with contemplative walking sessions between them. A short teaching in the morning and a contemplative Eucharist help the silence reach its full potential. You will also have a daily fifteen minute one-to-one meeting with one of the retreat team.

This is a rare opportunity to go significantly deeper in the work of silence. It is not a time for study or extensive reading. You will be expected to practice a ‘digital fast’ and not to use your phone or computer. This will help us be fully present and undistracted together.