In our lives, the empty silence
Within, the place where we go
Seeking, not in hope to
Arrive or find. He keeps the interstices
In our knowledge, the darkness
Between stars. His are the echoes
We follow, the footprints he has just
Left. We put our hands in
His side hoping to find
It warm. We look at people
And places as though he had looked
At them, too; but miss the reflection.
                       R S Thomas, Via Negativa 

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The meditation time will be followed by our Lenten Study, 7.30am to 8.30am. You are welcome to join for just one of the two sessions if you prefer.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study via Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.
           St Teresa of Avila 

We meet in the Cathedral tonight, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The meditation time will be followed by our Lenten Study, 7.30am to 8.30am. You are welcome to join for just one of the two sessions if you prefer.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study via Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

silence is startling and uncomfortable.
Perhaps this is especially true for me
because I fall into the millennial generation.
Certainly people my age and in my stage of life
now expect continual noise and stimulation…

 The season of Lent works at a different speed-
the speed of silence and stillness that brings renewal… 
              Andy Scott, Lent and the Lessons of Silence

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The meditation time will be followed by our Lenten Study, 7.30am to 8.30am. You are welcome to join for just one of the two sessions if you prefer.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study via Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

at the rising of the sun I seek your face.
My heart thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you,
in a barren and dry land where no water is.

 I search for you in unexpected places,
at the edges of the known, in the language of dreams,
in the wilderness of the city streets,
in the grim towers where the desperate dwell.

 There may I look long and lovingly,
there may I listen for the word beyond words,
there may I wait for a glimpse of your glory,
there may I utter strange songs of your praise.
          From An Unfolding of Psalm 63 by Jim Cotter

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house… It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day it is something new, fantastic and unbelievable.
                          From Joys and Sorrows, Pablo Casals

Following is a reflection on the transforming power of a life-giving habit. Some find mediation has the same effect.

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
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Peace,
Peter+

and in this way opens our eyes,
so that later, from this experience,
we take the criteria for judgment and can correctly evaluate the arguments.
For me an unforgettable experience was the Bach concert
that Leonard Bernstein conducted in Munich
after the sudden death of Karl Richter.
I was sitting next to the Lutheran Bishop Hanselmann.
When the last note of one of the great Thomas-Kantor-Cantatas triumphantly faded away, we looked at each other spontaneously and right then we said:
“Anyone who has heard this, knows that the faith is true.”
             Pope Benedict VI

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our first meditation group meeting of 2023, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Collects the clear cold drops of night.
Seeds falling on the water spread
A rippling target for the light.

 The rumour in the ear now murmurs less,
The snail draws in its tender horn,
The heart becomes a bare attentiveness,
And in that bareness light is born.
                   James McAuley, Nativity.

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

After this week there will be a two week recess.
The next meeting of the group will be Tuesday 10^th January.

Christmass and New Year Blessing to you all.

Peace,
Peter+

I might have missed
in the bright of day.
It is the slowing of time,
the sense of air
soft filling each space,
touching my face,
of self with no mask
or pretence,
no agenda,
no inner or outer pressure,
just silence so loud
I can hear it.
It is so empty, it is full.
I can feel all that is there,
all that is always there,
although I am not.
I can honour it
by doing nothing.
             Jane Upchurch, The Dark

 We will meet in the Darnell Room on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom.

Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry to the meal.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory,
bearing the banners of the king with great honour.
Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground and he commanded it to fly.
The feather flew, not because of anything in itself,
but because the air bore it along.
Thus am I ‘a feather on the breath of God’
               Hildegard of Bingen

 We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

And even if it were blazoned forth with all the panoply of noise
so that it could be heard in the midst of all the other noise,
then it would no longer be the Word of God.
Therefore create silence.
                  Attributed to Søren Kierkegaard

 We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvellous lute and drum.

To Dance within,
In celebration of Love’s Victory
      Hafez, I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy

 We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark. Please note that this week we are meeting in The Lady Chapel, a little deeper into the Cathedral than the usual space in the North Aisle.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvelous lute and drum.

 Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?

 I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,

 To yield to Light and Happiness,

 To Dance within,
In celebration of Love’s Victory
          Hafez

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
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Peace,
Peter+

that many of the forms of prayer or expressions of prayer that we exercise can be forms of distraction. Can be. Meditation, as we know, does not replace any other form of prayer that you find helpful or through which you can grow in your love of God. But if we don’t have this centrality of contemplation in our practice of prayer, then the danger is, and I am not being dismissive here, but the danger here is that our religiosity, our other forms of prayer, however busy we are with them, can become distractions. And that primary, all important quality of pure attention, which is pure prayer is lost or is not exercised and begins to waste away. At the end, if that process were to continue without interruption, it will just lead to a religious fanaticism or compulsiveness. You know, the kind of religious person who is hyper religious, but really does not pay attention to anybody else or anything else, just to their religiosity. We have to face that fact, as religious people.
                  Laurence Freeman OSB

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

An hour of silence
From a juke-box in New York
Or San Francisco once,

 That now they intend
To go back to their home place
For a bit of peace,

 A house overlooking a lake
And a wood for kindling.

 ‘But you can’t fell trees
That had stood for as long
As anyone remembers?’

 ‘The wood we have in mind will stand
While it has lost its timber.’
      Paul Muldoon, The Wood

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before—“
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted so by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I love
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
                          May Sarton, Now I Become Myself

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
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Peace,
Peter+

Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
           Rumi

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
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Peace,
Peter+

have gripped you
                    To come to the kitchen
and peel a little basketball
for breakfast
              To tear the husk
like cotton padding        a cloud of oil
misting out of its pinprick pores
clean and sharp as pepper
                             To ease
each pale pink section out of its case
so carefully       without breaking
a single pearly cell
                    To slide each piece
into a cold blue china bowl
the juice pooling       until the whole
fruit is divided from its skin
and only then to eat
                  so sweet
                            a discipline
precisely pointless       a devout
involvement of the hands and senses
a pause     a little emptiness

 each year harder to live within
each year harder to live without
                      Craig Arnold, Meditation on a Grapefruit 
                       Source: Poetry (October 2009)

The practice of meditation can lead to a more mindful relationship with our food.

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
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Peace,
Peter+

mobile, glancing, we call it poetry,

 fixed centrally, we call it a

 religion,
and God is the poetry caught in
any religion,
caught, not imprisoned. Caught
as in a mirror

 that he attracted, being in the
world as poetry
is in the poem, a law against its
closure.
There’ll always be religion around
while there is poetry

 or a lack of it. Both are given, and
intermittent,
as the action of those birds –
crested pigeon, rosella parrot –
who fly with wings shut, then
beating, and again shut.
              Les Murray, Poetry and Religion

Please note that this week we meet in the Darnell Room in St Martin’s House, tonight at 6.45pm, as there is a function in the Cathedral. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

It is still possible to join the group using Zoom.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. 

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
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Peace,
Peter+

“I work in the rich hinterland between language and sound, sound and sign, sign and sema, and on the edge of what is often described as ‘wilderness’ in the high Pennines of Cumbria,” says Josephine Dickinson in this conversation with Poetry International. “As a Deaf artist I have made this my eco-niche. Recent works challenge narratives of meaning, boundaries between senses and place.” For Josephine Dickinson, “the sense of hearing, like all the senses, is a deeply mysterious thing.” When asked how as a Deaf person she can hear voices, music, poetry, Josephine Dickinson responds: “How can a hearing person hear?”
https://www.poetryinternationalonline.com/deaf-poetics-a-conversation-with-josephine-dickinson/

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

How do we grasp something as empty, as harmless, as seemingly fruitless as the practice of silence? Only when we know that it also offers a “peace beyond understanding” (Philippians 4:7) and a “joy that no one can take from you” (John 16:22).

 Silence needs to be understood in a larger way than simply a lack of audible noise. Whenever emptiness—what seems like empty space or absence of sound—becomes its own kind of fullness with its own kind of sweet voice, we have just experienced sacred silence.

 When religious folks limit their focus in prayer to external technique and formula, the soul remains largely untouched and unchanged. Too much emphasis on what I call “social prayer” or wordy prayer feeds our egos and gives us far too much to argue about. That is surely why Jesus emphasized quiet prayer in one’s own “inner room” and warned us not to “babble on as the pagans do” (Matthew 6:5-7). Oh, the years we Catholics and others have wasted arguing about liturgy in a juridical way! For me, law and liturgy are two different realms. How can we truly pray when we are preoccupied with formula and perfection of technique? 
                          Sacred Silence (Part 1), Richard Rohr
                           https://cac.org/daily-meditations/sacred-silence-2020-01-09/
TBC next week

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird –
                   equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

 Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
                    keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

 which is mostly standing still and learning to be
                  astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

 which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
               And these body-clothes,
A mouth with which to give shouts of joy
               To the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
Telling them all, over and over, how it is that
               we live forever.
                          Mary Oliver, Messenger

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.
           From The Journey, Mary Oliver

Meditation helps us hear the still small voice, which is easily shouted down by some of the voices of culture and economy which keep ‘shouting their bad advice’ .

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
            From Burnt Norton (The Four Quartets), T S Eliot

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

and certainly if a thing is desired at any cost,
it will be obtained at all costs.
We need to remember and to teach our children
that solitude can be a much-to-be-desired condition.
Not only is it acceptable to be alone,
at times it is positively to be wished for.
It is in the interludes between being in company
that we talk to ourselves.
In the silence we listen to ourselves.
Then we ask questions of ourselves.
We describe ourselves,
and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God.
                          Maya Angelou, Even the Stars Look Lonesome 

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Has not opened his heart to the smiling
Secret he cannot quote?
Which goes to show that the Bard
Was sober when he wrote
That this world of fact we love
Is unsubstantial stuff;
All the rest is silence
On the other side of the wall;
And the silence ripeness,
And the ripeness all.
                W H Auden, From The Sea and The Mirror

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

step out into the night,
outside of space and time.

 Wear the darkness, clothed like a dress.
In your unknowing,
you’re truly blessed.

 What you seek lies farther than eyes can see –
step after step
faith must lead.

 Like a flower, like a seed,
in the darkness
is where roots feed.

 We need not act but only be open to receive
gifts that are imparted
but which the mind is unable to perceive.
             Justin Farley, The Cloud of Unknowing, From A Voice in the Wilderness – A Chapbook of Poems about God”

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

and move our hearts with pity
lest we grow hard . . .

 God bless this house
with silence, solitude, simplicity
that we may pray . . .

 God bless these days
of rough and narrow ways
lest we despair . . .

 God bless the night
and calm the people’s fright
that we may love . . .

 God bless this land
and guide us with your hand
lest we be unjust . . .

 God bless this earth
through pangs of death and birth
and make us whole . . .
              Jim Cotter, Prayer at Night’s Approaching

Jim Cotter taught me that prayer could be, and perhaps should be, poetic.

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

hardly breathing,
he could call
out of the long darkness
walls around him,
a house whose each room
he knew, its hoard
of silences, solitudes,
doors opening
onto the wide fields
through which he moved….
                         The Last Hour, Christian Wiman

Our group will be in recess this week due to the Diocesan Eucharist of the Oils on Tuesday evening.

We will resume our meal and meetings next week.

Peace,
Peter+

We have become comfortable with our fears
and have befriended silence.
                    Breeana Nykole

Breeana Nykole reminds us that it is a privilege to be able to choose to sit in silence. So many in our world have silence imposed upon them. For them sitting in silence is not a gift.

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The Lenten study will continue after the meditation session this week.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

fired with love’s urgent longings
— ah, the sheer grace! —
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

 In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
— ah, the sheer grace! —
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.

 On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

 This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
— him I knew so well —
there in a place where no one appeared.

 O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.
        John of the Cross, From Dark Night of the Soul

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The Lenten study will continue after the meditation session this week.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

    And on the margins of the sea
Remember not thine old distress
    Nor all the miseries to be.
Calmer than mists, and cold
As they, that fold on fold
Up the dim valley are rolled,
    Learn thou to be.

But meanwhile, now the east is gray,
    The hour is pale, the cocks yet dumb,
Be glad before the birth of day,
    Take thy brief rest ere morning come:
Here in the beautiful woods
All night the sea-mist floods,—
Thy last of solitudes,
    Thy yearlong home.
               Robinson Jeffers, Song of Quietness

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The Lenten study will continue after the meditation session this week.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

that which bears
the spirit within it.

 The name of the spirit is written
in woodgrain, windripple, crystal,

 in crystals of snow, in petal, leaf,
moss and moon, fossil and feather,

blood, bone, song, silence,
very word of
very word,
flesh and
vision….
           From Benedictus in Mass for the Day of St Thomas Didymus, Denise Levertov

Note that in the poem Levertov proclaims silences to be one of the things that
comes in the name of the spirit,
that which bears
the spirit within it.

We will return to in-person meetings this week. The Zoom option will also be on offer.

The shared meal from 5.30pm also returns this week.

The Lenten study will continue after the meditation session this week.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken,
Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken,
Luminously-peopled air ascends;
And past the poppies bluish neutral distance
Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach
Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence:
Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.
                   From Here, Philip Larkin

Thank you for the responses that came in answer to last week’s question to do with a return to in-person meetings.

We were hoping to return to in-person meetings this week. However we will be hosting a huge service in the Cathedral on Tuesday so we have decided to delay the return by one week. This week the Meditation group will  meet on Zoom.

On Tuesday March 15 the shared meal will return as well as the in-person gathering for meditation.

The Lenten study will commence after the meditation session this week.

To join the Meditation group and/or the study by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

and speaking much of love, as one to one;
and yet their speech so ardent in its truth,
not sound but rather silence seems to reign.

No lovers’ pledge more common, nor more true;
no love more constant; nor more holy vow.
                    Mechthild of Magdeburg

As you would be aware, due to the current state of the pandemic, the Meditation group has been meeting on Zoom. That will be the case this week as well. The Covid-safe meal has also been suspended. We are considering reintroducing the meal and the opportunity to gather in the Cathedral. The Lenten study will commence after the meditation session next week and could provide the opportunity to switch back to in person gathering. We would value you thoughts, please

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

We hope that you have not been too significantly affected by the rain and flooding. Do let us know if we can assist in any way. Stay safe, but stay connected.

Peace,
Peter+

one loving, blind desire for God alone is more valuable in itself,
more pleasing to God and to the saints,
more beneficial to your own growth,
and more helpful to your friends,
both living and dead,
than anything else you could do.
                     The Cloud of Unknowing

Due to the current state of the pandemic, the Meditation group will meet by Zoom on Tuesday, 6.45pm to 7.30pm.

The Covid-safe meal has been suspended for the time being.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

We hope that these changes will only be in force for a short time In the meantime, stay safe, but stay connected.

Peace,
Peter+

An hour of silence
From a juke-box in New York
Or San Francisco once,

That now they intend
To go back to their home place
For a bit of peace,

A house overlooking a lake
And a wood for kindling.

‘But you can’t fell trees
That had stood for as long
As anyone remembers?’

‘The wood we have in mind will stand
While it has lost its timber.’
                The Wood, Paul Muldoon

Due to the current state of the pandemic, the Meditation group will meet by Zoom only on Tuesday, 6.45pm to 7.30pm.

The Covid-safe meal has been suspended for the time being.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

We hope that these changes will only be in force for a short time In the meantime, stay safe, but stay connected.

Peace,
Peter+

..is to allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within us
to become more and more not only a reality
but the reality which gives meaning,
shape and purpose to everything we do,
everything we are.
John Main 

Due to the current state of the pandemic, the Meditation group will meet by Zoom only on Tuesday night, 6.45pm to 7.30pm.

The Covid-safe meal has been suspended for the time being.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

We hope that these changes will only be in force for a short time In the meantime, stay safe, but stay connected.

Peace,
Peter+

Are paltry melody
But those the silent feel
Are beautiful –
 Emily Dickinson, Poem 1750

Due to the current state of the pandemic, the Meditation group will once again meet by Zoom only on Tuesday night, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. 

The Covid-safe meal has been suspended for the time being.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

We hope that these changes will only be in force for a short time In the meantime, stay safe, but stay connected.

Peace,
Peter+

We pay attention when there is no ‘I’ thought, no self-reflective consciousness, no thought that we are the observer. This attention is the essence of prayer. Whenever we are in this state we are in prayer whether we are in church or supermarket, bedroom or boardroom, making love or making money. The dimension of our being that is addressed by the question of Jesus is perpetually in this state. When we pray, we return to prayer. When we listen, we return to silence.
              From Jesus: The Teacher Within, Laurence Freeman

As announced last week, due to the burgeoning number of Covid cases, the Meditation group will meet by Zoom only for the next period. Please join us by Zoom on Tuesday night, 6.45pm to 7.30pm.

The Covid-safe meal has been suspended for the time being.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

We hope that these changes will only be in force for a short time In the meantime, stay safe, but stay connected.

Peace,
Peter+

To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.

In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.

And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
                               T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets: East Coker

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group and or the Study session by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

​And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven’t hoed,
And shout from where I am, “What is it?”
No, not as there is time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
                 A Time to Talk, Robert Frost

When we learn to attend we can develop a better sense of when we do and don’t need to talk.

The Cathedral meditation group is in recess this week.

We will resume both the meal and Mediation gathering from January 4.

Peace,
Peter+

And luminous, illimitable souls;
And a longing (as if for sin)
Trembles at times through their dreams.

 They all resemble one another.
In God’s garden they are silent
Like many, many intervals
In His mighty melody.

 But when they spread their wings
They awaken the winds
That stir as though God
With His far-reaching master hands
Turned the pages of the dark book of Beginning.
                        The Angels, Rainer Maria Rilke

I was drawn towards this poem because it is a great angel poem and this week our Advent journey features Luke’s story about Mary. That story contains the annunciation, the angel calling Mary to be the bearer of Jesus.

In the end, I included the poem in this meditation reflection, not because of the angel theme, but the words:
In God’s garden they are silent
Like many, many intervals
In His mighty melody.

I love the idea that in silence we encounter intervals in God’s melody; that silence is part of the music of the Divine.

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The Advent Study concluded last week. We will offer another study in the new year.

After this week, the group will have a one week recess, so there will be no gathering on Tuesday 28^th December.

To join the Meditation group this week by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.

In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.

And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
                             T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets: East Coker

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The Cathedral is also hosting its annual Blue Christmass Service on Tuesday at 6pm. In that service we reflect on how the Christmass story speaks to all of our living, including our grief sadness and loneliness. The service will conclude in plenty of time for you to join the meditation group should you wish to do both.

The meditation session will be followed by the last session of our Advent Study, which will go from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.

To join the Meditation group and or the Study session by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+

He buys the worthless rubbish which is your wealth,
He pays you the Light that illumines your heart.
He accepts these frozen and lifeless bodies of yours,
And gives you a Kingdom beyond what you dream of,
He takes a few drops of your tears,
And gives you the Divine Fount sweeter than sugar.
He takes your sighs fraught with grief and sadness,
And for each sigh gives rank in heaven as interest.
In return for the sigh-wind that raised tear-clouds,
God gave Abraham the title of “Father of the Faithful”
                                     Jalal ad-Din Rumi, from The Masnavi

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Currently we are not offering a study on Tuesday nights.

Peace,
Peter+

rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself.
In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement,
for the endless guilt of not doing enough.
It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people’s lives in a knot.
Instead there is now meditation as an act of love.
How endlessly delightful and encouraging.
      Bob Sharples, From Meditation: Calming the Mind

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

 A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Currently we are not offering a study on Tuesday nights.

Peace,
Peter+

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment of past and future
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure.
          From Burnt Norton, T S Eliot

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

 A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

To join the Meditation group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Currently we are not offering a study on Tuesday nights.

Peace,
Peter+

My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.

 Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another life that’s wide and timeless.

 So I am sometimes like a tree
rustling over a gravesite
and making real the dream
of the one its living roots
embrace:

 a dream once lost
among sorrows and songs.
                Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

We meet in the Cathedral on Tuesday night for our meditation group, 6.45pm to 7.30pm. It is still possible to join the group using Zoom. Please enter via the (North West) door – the door with ramp access that enters the Cathedral from the northern (larger) carpark.

 A Covid-safe meal of soup and bread will also be available from 5.30pm in St Martin’s House. Please enter St Martin’s House via the door off the courtyard. There is a buzzer labelled ‘Corridor’ you can use to gain entry.

The last session of Ken Keith’s exploration of the theme of Reconciliation as it applies to various parts of our life will occur after the meditation session. To find out more visit: www.stjphnscathedral.com.au/whats-on . We thank Ken for putting this study together.

To join the Meditation and/or study group by Zoom click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/278417931?pwd=UHMxT1dVL2ZTUTB2MHc3UWJvMGlrUT09

To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Peace,
Peter+