What an amazing day we had at St. Leonard’s, around 30 people gathered together for our first Quiet Day, led by our curate Revd Barbara Irving.

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It was a gloriously warm sunny day. 

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We started at 9.30am with coffee & pastries, an introduction, a reading, a time of worship & a brief chat on how to pray in different ways, all set out in a lovely booklet with encouraging ideas.

 

The main theme being 

I am the vine & you are the branches. John 15:5

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We had beautiful prayer stations, with tables of flowers, fruits, cards, a trellis to tie a ribbon on if we wanted to grow & bear fruit, a tree with lights to represent Jesus as the vine & we are the branches & we could write our names on a tag with a little heart on, hang it on the tree as a family coming together in Christ. We had an art table full of ideas for creative painting or collage, a LECTIO 365 session or to just walk around our beautiful  church yard or sit under magnificent trees  & take an hour & a half out, to be, talk, pray, listen to the whispers of our Heavenly Father, to take the hand of Jesus & be led wherever, to stop & listen to the birds & to be open to the Holy Spirit taking us on the journey. Even two green finches sounded as though they were calling us to come more closely into the presence of Jesus.

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I have never known an hour & a half go so quickly, & that was just the morning!

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We shared a deliciously simple lunch together around tables inside & out, chatting about the wonders of the morning.

The afternoon started at 13.30 with a choice of a completive walk, praying in small groups or continuing quietly in any of the prayer stations of the morning.

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We then gathered together in church & had a time of worship, a talk by Hazel Marchment on pruning by an expert gardener, showing us how the hard or gentle pruning of plants, trees & shrubs brings stronger growth & produces better fruits just as our Heavenly Father in the right seasons of our lives prunes us, to bear the best fruits in each one of us & so bring glory to our amazing God.

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Following this, we had a short time of sharing our experiences of the day & brought our artwork or anything we could show what God had been speaking to us about & placed it on the alter.

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To close we shared & celebrated a short communion service where again we met with God, thanking Him for Jesus & for leaving us with His Spirit to bring us closer in the ways of Jesus.

There is no doubt we were refreshed, restored & full of joy as we had been guided on how to spend quality time God our Father

Written by 

Anne Hemmings & Rev Barbara Irving