Wellspring, Brook, Lake, Sea: Shared Online Space for Journaling

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Wellspring, Brook, Lake, Sea: Shared Space for Journaling

Explore the depths of your story through the restorative power of journaling.

Join Jessica Brown, writer, poet, creative writing teacher, and narrative studies and public humanities researcher, for Wellspring, Brook, Lake, Sea—a four-week online journey designed to provide a gentle, guided space for anyone and everyone, in which to write, reflect, create, and be.

Book via Eventbrite by clicking here!

Water in all its forms—from the quiet bubbling of a wellspring to the vastness of the sea—reflects the different rhythms of our inner lives. Over four weeks, we will use these metaphors to guide our pens and our hearts:

  • Wellspring – Connecting with our inner source and beginnings.
  • Brook – Finding flow, movement, and navigating the stones that are scattered along our course
  • Lake – Embracing stillness, depth, and the power of reflection.
  • Sea – Expanding our perspective into the vastness beyond ourselves.

What to expect: This is not a writing masterclass; it is a “shared space.” Whether you are a lifelong journaler or have never picked up a pen, you are welcome. Each session includes guided prompts, quiet time for personal writing, and an opportunity for gentle group sharing in a safe, supportive environment.

Details:

  • Where: Online via Zoom (Link provided upon registration).
  • When: each Wednesday in March. The guided session runs from 7.30-8.30pm, but don’t worry – if you’re in the creative flow, you won’t be cut off! We’ll keep the Zoom meeting open until 9pm for those who want to stay.
  • What you need: A quiet space, a notebook, and your favorite pen.

Jessica writes: “Journaling can be a gentle way to express the soul, reflect on hardship, capture everyday joys, ponder and wrestle with concern and longings, articulate fears and hopes, and play with ideas and dreams. It is a way to connect with ourselves, growing in self-knowledge and compassion, and it is a way to connect with our lives as we navigate through the days and seasons. But it’s often difficult to keep showing up to a quiet time or reflective practice on your own, so this is an offering of shared space that values that intention. These four Wednesday evenings in March will offer a variety of prompts and stretches of quiet as we write away in shared company. Bookended with welcoming and closing meditations, there will also be opportunities to share or reflect aloud (with absolutely no pressure to!). Following what waterways can teach us, the prompts will be grouped loosely around water metaphors for journaling: wellspring, brook, lake, seas. As we step further into the unfolding of 2026, I so look forward to this online gathering!”

Dublin and Glendalough healing committee spring retreat

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We are delighted to share the details of the Dublin and Glendalough Ministry of Healing’s annual spring retreat! Please do share it with anyone who may not see it or hear about it, but would love to have a quiet day of restoration.

Join Lydia for a 6-part video series, Cultivating Gratitude!

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The Church’s Ministry of Healing: Ireland is delighted to welcome you to our 6-part video series, “Cultivating Gratitude”, which uses prayerful reflection to help us to find space to notice the good in our lives, even amidst our struggles. In each video, Lydia Monds, CMH:I Ministry Leader, shares a reflection and leads a meditative practice which invites you to slow down and notice God’s goodness. Lydia says:

“There’s a lovely sense of warmth and hope when we tend to the good in our lives, let our gratitude linger, and offer it to God, the source of all good things.”

Join Lydia as she reflects on different aspects of gratitude and the benefits of living life with a grateful heart. Gratitude doesn’t pretend that things are great when they’re not, but it scans for the good, even in the midst of suffering. As a way of life, it improves our wellbeing, boosting our mood and outlook, and supports us turning towards God from whom all good things flow. The sessions are: Week 1: A Wider Lens; Week 2: Savouring the Good; Week 3: The Widening Circles of Connection; Week 4: Making Room for Ritual; Week 5: Our Deepest Longings; Week 6: Gratitude for Nature.

Cultivating Gratitude is a donation-based series – you can sign up HERE via Eventbrite, or, if you prefer, email us at hello @ministryofhealing.ie to donate via bank transfer or PayPal.

Watch a clip of one session here:

Each video session is about 20 minutes long. Now that you have signed up, you have permanent access to all the sessions, so you can practice as often as you like. Watch them whenever you have some time in your week – no need to be free on a set day at a set hour! And you are welcome to return to watch them and practice gratitude again, whenever and as often you would like. You also have access to a worksheet for each session: each worksheet contains more detail about the scientific research into gratitude, as well as poems, and extracts from books on Christian spirituality. These texts explore topics such as play, rest, and hope in relation to thankfulness. The worksheets also offer questions, tailored to Lydia’s sessions, to awaken your curiosity about your responses to the videos, and help you to explore gratitude in your
own life. Finally, each worksheet ends with Biblical passages on the session’s theme, and a prayer to say to end the session. The worksheets can easily be read on a phone or tablet – or printed, if you prefer that. Each worksheet consists of two A4 pages.

Wellspring – book now to join this gentle day

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Our lovely day retreat ‘Wellspring’ is returning in January to offer an oasis in the city, and gentle contemplation amidst the noise and agitation of life.
Bookings are limited to 10 people due to space restrictions, so do book your place to avoid disappointment.
The day is led by Lydia, Julie and Nathalie who facilitate contemplative story and prayer, a scripture circle and a response through art.

Be Still & Know returns in 2026

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Are you destabilised in yourself due to the instability in the world?
Are you in search of something deeper and more meaningful than a shiny resolution?
Come along to our lunchtime sessions ‘Be Still and Know’ and turn towards the Prince of Peace. By resting in His Peace, we, in turn, can bring that peace to the world around us. By coming exactly as we are and experiencing acceptance and belonging and love, we can be restored by how God sees us.
You are welcome to come for one, two, three or four of the sessions. Camera on or off Sitting, lying, standing, walking. A quiet space for community and intention to turn towards the Source of our lives.

CMHI prayer and Bible verse booklet – now available

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We are delighted to launch a new CMHI prayer/Bible verse booklet in response to requests from people who have found our beautiful prayer cards useful, and asked us for something longer. This is a 12-page booklet, in black-and-white for easy printing, that contains beautiful prayers, some familiar friends from the Book of Common Prayer, and others new companions written by CMHI. There are Bible verses on the themes of love, peace, and light in the darkness. Finally, the booklet contains a page for your own journaling or notes. This is an ideal booklet for anyone who needs comfort or spiritual guidance, and perfect for those in hospital who want to pray and read some verses from Scripture. Contact hello@ministryofhealing.ie to ask about copies – we do ask for a small donation, if possible, to support our work and help us to offer our ministry as widely as possible.

 

Prayer of Examen – CMHI resource

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The Examen is a spiritual practice that has been used since the 16th century. CMHI provides you with a gentle, Anglican, version. In this prayer, we notice God’s presence, and name it, at both the joyful and the sorrowful times.

Like other forms of contemplative prayer, using the Examen practice regularly may aid you in discerning God’s voice in your life. When we direct our attention to God, he shows us the ways in which we will be helped by focusing our time and energy on him, and guides us away from the things that do not help us.

This is a short, mindful, kindly spiritual practice that helps us to find God in the everyday as we pause at evening-time to look back over the joys and laments of the day, and to focus on where God spoke to us, even if we may not have heard his voice at the time.

Click here to download

 

Photo by Julia on Unsplash

 

Healing Prayer Group booklet

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We are delighted to make a new version of our guidelines and help for Healing Prayer Groups available, so if your parish is planning to set up such a group, or revive one that’s dormant, or is looking for help and ideas for your existing group, then our booklet is just what you need.

It’s available for download and printing by clicking here.

As all our work is funded by donations, if you find this booklet useful, please donate to support us. Details of how to donate are available here.

Windows of Waiting

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Windows of light for waiting hearts

Advent is a season of watching and waiting. Through Windows of Waiting, you will receive twelve gentle reflections by email, or WhatsApp. This mix of prayers, poems, guided meditations, and creative ideas will help you to rest, reflect, and prepare room for the coming of Christ this Christmas. Make space to pause this Advent.

Sign up HERE or email hello@ministryofhealing.ie if you have problems with Eventbrite. This is a donation-based event, so you are welcome to give whatever you would like.

Join Windows of Waiting, a 12-part email/WhatsApp series of short reflections, poems, and prayers, which offer gentle encouragement for the journey of Advent.

Advent is busy, but it’s also a time to pause, breathe, and remember what we’re really waiting for. Windows of Waiting is a gentle companion for this season: twelve short reflections delivered to your inbox, with poems, prayers, and ideas to help you find light along the way.

Advent is a time of holy waiting — a quiet season when even the smallest glimmer of light can speak of hope. Windows of Waiting offers twelve moments of stillness by email: a window to open, a word to hold, a light for your waiting heart.

You will receive two reflections each week, across the six weeks of Advent, written and created by Lydia and Catherine.

Reading by Candlelight – Advent book group

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As darkness moves towards light, you are warmly invited to join the Church’s Ministry of Healing: Ireland for a reflective Advent reading group. Sign up for one week or more, and, best of all, we will send you the texts, so you don’t have to buy any books! Book via Eventbrite HERE, or if you have difficulties with this, email hello@ministryofhealing.ie. This is a donation-based group – you choose how much you would like to donate.

Week 1 (3rd December): “the solid existence of love” – preparing for Christmas Day

· “Christmas Eve,” by Maeve Brennan (a short story, first published in The New Yorker in 1972) – audio version, read by Roddy Doyle, available

· “Christmas Eve: My Mother Dressing,” by Toi Derricotte (a poem)

Week 2 (10th December): “the smaller you are, the bigger Christmas is” – childhood and Christmas

· “Christmas,” a chapter from the memoir Sculptor’s Daughter, by Tove Jansson, (published in 1968)

· “Taking Down the Tree,” by Jane Kenyon (a poem)

· “Christmas, 1970,” by Sandra M. Castillo (a poem)

Week 3 (17th December): “eventually they noticed” – Christmas cooking

· “This Year it will be Different,” by Maeve Binchy (1996) (short story)

· a short extract from The Green Road by Anne Enright (2015)

· a short extract from “Village Christmas” by Laurie Lee (published 2015 but written much earlier)

· a short extract from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)

Week 4 (7th January 2026): “snow was general all over Ireland”

· The Dead by James Joyce (1914)

Each session offers gentle discussion, space for reflection, and the gift of listening — a pause in the busyness of winter to rest, read, and renew the spirit. Gather with us for four evenings as we explore and discuss short stories, poems, and reflections that open the heart to the season’s mystery and hope. Together we’ll read works that explore the complexity of Christmas from a child’s point of view, the sometimes painful family dynamics of celebration, and the moments of beauty that remain etched in memory.

Each reading group meeting will start with an introduction to the authors, their lives, their work, and their artistic views. We will then open up discussion, comments, likes and dislikes, and any thoughts or ideas you want to share. If you prefer to listen rather than speak, to have your camera off, or to journal or sketch during the discussion, please do!