Archive for category: Upcoming Events

If you find it hard to focus when you pray – if your mind drifts off into lists of things to do, or the worries that follow you throughout the day and the night – then it may help to pray with your body as well as your mind. CMHI has developed a series of prayers for which you use your hands in various ways; this reminds us to give thanks for our bodies, and to see ourselves holistically, as beings of both flesh and spirit. The prayers are suitable for children and young people who are developing their prayer life and find it helpful to use physical actions as they pray. The prayers are:

• the labyrinth prayer
• the prayer of letting go
• square breathing prayer
• prayer for 5 people on 5 fingers in 5 minutes

Click here to download the A4 prayer sheets. 

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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.

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

Take 7 minutes and 42 seconds to pause and practise the presence of God in the midst of any busyness in your mind, emotions or schedule. Lydia, our Ministry Leader, guides you through this prayerful practice.