He Restores My Soul: A Quiet Day Reflecting on Psalm 23

The Church’s Ministry of Healing Dublin and Glendalough Annual Quiet Day 2025 will take place on Saturday 22nd March, in Newcastle Parish Centre (Church Lane, Newcastle, Greystones, Co Wicklow A63 X782). Join us for a day of resting in God’s unfailing love and turning towards ourselves with compassion. The CMH Quiet Day was extremely popular last year, and attendees experienced it as a source of encouragement, creativity and peace, as we gathered in the presence of the Lord, our Healer. If you would like to join us for this special day, please email Jeanne at healing.dgdc@gmail.com

Our facilitator is Lydia Monds, Ministry Leader with the Church’s Ministry of Healing: Ireland. It promises to be a time of renewed connection with God, leaning upon His strength, provision, and promises, as we navigate the hills and valleys of life. Sessions will include contemplative story-telling, where the Psalm will be shared on sand, and a deeper look at different phrases in the Psalm that might prompt us to view it with fresh eyes. There will also be times of facilitated meditative prayer, as well as time and space to respond to what you have heart through personal prayer or art spaces. We will be leaning into the gift of silence, and allowing Love to speak, as we are supported to be still before God.

 

God With Us: in-person Lenten lunchtime series

In addition to our online Lenten series, “Invitations into Wholeness” (https://ministryofhealing.ie/invitations-into-wholeness-our-new-online-lenten-series/), we have an in-person Lent course in the cosy living room of Egan House, our offices, which are on the grounds of St Michan’s Church in Dublin 7 (D07 X865). Focusing on the theme ‘God with us’, Lydia and Susan Dawson, a chaplain and member of CMHI, will facilitate people to rest in this truth through meditating on scripture and reflecting on what it means in the context in which it was written, for our lives now and for the world.

Sessions are from 1-2pm on Tuesdays, 11th March-1st April. A simple, nourishing, lunch will be available from 12.3-1pm and 2-2.30pm.

Because of space, we need to limit numbers for this series, so please get in touch with me soon if you are planning to come along: lydia.cmhi@gmail.com

 

“Invitations into Wholeness”: our new online Lenten series

You are warmly invited to join CMHI’s new online Lenten Series, Invitation into Wholeness, over four Wednesdays in March and April. It takes place at 7.30pm on the following dates:

  • March 19th
  • March 26th
  • April 2nd
  • April 9th

These will be gentle, reflective and nourishing sessions exploring the concept of wholeness in new ways. The sessions are intentionally short but brimming with visual beauty and gentle challenges to our perceptions of wholeness. There is time every week to settle, to rest and to pray, there is time for learning and wondering, and time for journaling or doodling. The course is specifically welcoming of people living with illness and open to all.

Sign up via Eventbrite.

Sample Itinerary

  • Welcome & Settling in Practise
  • Introduction of theme
  • Opening prayer
  • Meditative Presentation – slides with artwork, reflection & wondering questions
  • Time to sit with questions, pray, journal, doodle
  • Time to share
  • Pray together prayer on screen to close

Week 1: Brokenness and Newness

Week 2: Trees, Stone, Seas (notions of wholeness in nature)

Week 3: Sounding out the Heart and Trusting our Voice

Week 4: Joy & Sorrow on the Same Page

Main Facilitator:

Having studied literature and spiritual formation, Dr. Jessica Brown is a second-year ordinand in the Church of Ireland.

She also works in the creative writing field as a poet, novelist, singer-songwriter, teacher, mentor, and narrative practitioner.

She has led writing workshops at schools, prisons, festivals, and community events. Beyond academic publications and shorter works, Jessica has published two collections of poetry and two novels for children.

“Jessica was a guest contributor on our Advent Series. She showed photographs of ordinary spaces in an ordinary house and talked about grace to receive the given moment and the given day exactly as it is. When we did, we could see there was beauty in the ordinary and in the things undone and half done. Her reflection has stayed with me, and continued to teach me when I’m resisting how I am in the moment and how I think I should be. The fact that God’s grace is sufficient to meet me where I am and as I am has allowed me (when I remember!) to let go of the striving and grasping and unhelpful beliefs. I am learning to receive the gift of right now and the gift of God’s grace for me in the here and now.”

(reflection on Jessica’s facilitation by Lydia, CMH:I)

 

2024 in Review

Today, we’re sharing the report that our Chair, Rev Canon Lesley Robinson, presented at the CMHI AGM in December, so that you can catch up on our summary of all the events and activities of 2024, and look ahead to some plans in 2025! Read the report by clicking here: 2024 Report

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash