Reflections

Bringing together silence and sound, chant offers a contemplative path that leads us through Advent’s winter shadows. Chants, ancient or contemporary, draw us across a threshold into deeper quiet and give us courage, so that like the shepherds who rose out of fear to peer up at shining angels, we dare to step from familiar dark into unknown light. Here, Susan J. Latimer, an Episcopal priest and musician, tells us how chant can give us courage, heal us, and help us become more present to the...

“Silence is God’s first language” ~ St. John of the Cross Snowmass recedes. We in the Centering Prayer community are mourning this month’s closure of St. Benedict’s guesthouse, and the apparent dissolution of the monastery. The universe found a vital heart at Snowmass during her few decades among us. Like a sheltering mother, she gathered us in. She encouraged us to see with wonder, find our centre, and give ourselves back to the world. There, we were nurtured and challenged by Fr. Thomas...

The Sunday immediately prior to Advent is what used to be called “Christ the King” and is now “updated” to “The Reign of Christ”. The readings for that day are Colossians 1: 15-20 & Luke 23: 33-43. As we enter Advent I ask myself who or what is this Christ? The image of kingship today is, obviously, anachronistic. There is no one God-king wielding unilateral power over humanity. Instead we have this Jesus – a man hanging from a cross. Who then is this “image of the unseen God” and what is its...

Anne Henderson June 26, 1939 – June 27, 2022 Former President and founding member of The Contemplative Society Anne Henderson died peacefully on July, 2022, with her husband Doug and sons at her side. In a beautiful tribute to Anne, member and former TCS President Pat Manning spoke at Anne’s funeral held at St John the Divine Anglican Church in Victoria, BC. We share the tribute with you here, celebrating Anne’s time with us, honouring Anne’s generous and gentle spirit, grounded in Divine...

In anticipation of the upcoming Zoom Retreat with Douglas Christie, TCS Board Member Therese DesCamp shares wit us this reflection: Holding the Post: An invitation to know our place within the sacred space we live I recently went up Red Mountain Road to drop off some jam for friends. Their driveway being an impassable pile of snow, I parked below and followed a trail up the side of the mountain through a tract of mature forest. I felt those woods before I really saw them. Something made me...