Praying with hope
‘Hope and the Nearness of God’ is the theme and title of the Lenten Sacred Space retreat » this year 2022. It is offered, as customary, in collaboration with the British Team at Pray As You Go », the online podcast prayer site of the British Jesuit Province.
The introduction to the retreat was posted on Monday 28 February and further inputs will be posted weekly until Monday 15 April.
The retreat is based on a new book of the same name by Franciscan sister Teresa White. Throughout the six weeks of this retreat, she invites participants to travel along the paths of hope on their journey towards Easter.
This Lent, says St Teresa, we are invited to renew our trust and hope in God’s action in our life – “when the future is uncertain or unpredictable, we call on God, as we would call on a loving father or mother, to provide for us, and we hope for a favourable response. We hope for a better world, trusting in the faithfulness and loving-kindness of God, and at the same time trying, for our part, to make this better, fairer world become a reality”.
The Sacred Space team is aware that since going online with this retreat the people of Ukraine and further afield have been plunged into despair as the Russian tanks invade and decimate their country.
Added to this are the dire warnings about climate change with the very future of our planet at stake environmentally. Hope is in short supply these troubled times and this retreat, offering a sustaining vision of Christian hope and God’s love and nearness to the broken hearted, is a message, they believe, we all need to hear.
“Hope”, said theologian and well know spiritual writer Henri Nouwen, “means to keep living amid desperation, and to keep humming in the darkness. Hoping is knowing that there is love; it is trust in tomorrow; it is falling asleep and waking up when the sun rises … And God will be holding you in his hands.”
The retreat will be available in both audio and text on the Sacred Space website. One session will be released each week starting on Monday 28th February and continuing on Monday 7th March; Monday 14th March; Monday 21 March; Monday 28 March; Monday 4 April; Monday 11 April; and concluding on Good Friday 15 April.
The Sacred Space/Pray As You Go team invites to you join them in praying with hope this Lent.
