Offerings from Authors

This year, Oasis Ministries is pleased to announce the opportunity to experience several authors as leaders of retreats.

Oasis "Author Series" includes:

• ADVENTURING THROUGH LENT
  A Retreat Day with authors and teachers, Bruce and Kate Epperly - March 5th in Palmyra, PA
  
  
• "An Evening with Belden Lane" co-sponsored with State College Presbyterian Church, April 15th in State College, PA
  
  
• BAPTIZED INTO WILDERNESS: LIVING AND PRAYING SIMPLY, POETICALLY
  A Retreat Day with author and teacher, Oasis’ Founding Mentor, Kent Ira Groff- April 21st in Lebanon, PA and April 22nd in Bangor, PA.

Learn more about Oasis’ NEW Author Series

 

 

 

 

This was originally a piece of the Oasis January 24, 2010 e-newsletter.  To view the newsletter in a browser, click here.

To sign up to receive Oasis e-news, visit our website at www.oasismin.org

 

Offerings from LCG Participants

In our Leading Contemplative Gatherings program, participants are required to develop and facilitate a contemplative gathering or group.  Some of these are closed groups for specific people.  Others are open to anyone.  

Open opportunities include:

 ... Women's retreat - February 20, Harrisburg, PA
 ... Oasis Ambassador's retreat - March 6, Newark, DE
 ... The Good Seed - March 6, Elizabethtown, PA
 ... Opening Space for God - March 14-15, Reading, PA 

Click Here to Learn More and Download Flyers

 

 

Hopeful for Miracles

As we watch, wait, support and pray for friends and strangers in Haiti, once again, I am aware of feelings of overwhelm and powerlessness. 

However, I came across a quote recently that brought me back to a more centered, sacred place:

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."
Helen Keller

Sometimes the best we can do is give; sometimes the best we can do is listen. Often the best we can do is pray.

As we open our hearts to Love and mystery,  we watch and notice the miracles around us.

May your life be full of miracles this week.

Cindy

This was originally a piece of our January 24, 2010 e-newsletter.  To view the newsletter in a browser, click here.

To sign up to receive Oasis e-news, visit our website at www.oasismin.org

 

vigorously brushing away all that clutters and dims your shining light

As we turn the page on the calendar and a new year, we hear a lot about resolutions. Resolutions conjure up scenarios for me of determination and persistence (as I am focused on this accomplishment), of settling an argument (as finding some resolution to conflict), even of failure (as I did not meet that which I resolved to do last year).

However, Epiphany invites me to wonder... and I wonder if new chapters in our lives are as much about reflection as they are about resolution. Reflecting on the year gone by, and reflecting on life in general, including our hopes of the year to come... but also actively reflecting the light of Love.

What keeps us from reflecting the Light?

Sometimes what keeps me from reflecting the light is dust. I have not taken the time to dust off my reflecting mirror. I have not spent time in silence and contemplation and prayer... and dust has gathered there.

I share with you a simple reflection that I am fond of, especially in times of transition, from Writing with Light: Meditations for Caregivers in Word and Images by Robert Merrill Eddy and Kathy Wonson Eddy:

Sometimes I see images when I pray. I quiet my mind and in the silence pictures float up; they often bring a feeling of catharsis and healing. One August when I was feeling discouraged about ministry and my creative life, I decided to bring the depression to Jesus and then simply wait quietly and watch to see what Christ would do. To my surprise Jesus took a broom and began sweeping me off!

"What are you sweeping off?" I asked.
Jesus answered, "All your NOs, all your CAN'Ts."

Then in my mind's eye, Jesus sprayed me with refreshing water from a hose. The water was filled with the word "Yes" printed in different sizes and styles. The Yes words stuck all over me. Later that day in meditation... I "saw" the Yes words in my lungs. With every breath they bounced around and danced....

Sweeping removes what is old and clears the way for what is new; it can help us find what was lost... think of God sweeping out your mind and heart, vigorously brushing away all that clutters and dims your shining light. God is clearing and preparing a place for your Yes: Yes to this work, this person, this opportunity for love and service, this Now with all its gifts...

God is sweeping your life.
Yes.

So, my friend, may you experience many epiphanies and many seasons of epiphany.

I close with a blessing shared with me from our Founding Mentor, Kent Groff:

BLESSINGS FOR THE EPIPHANY THAT CHRIST'S LIGHT MAY FLOOD OUR DARKENED WORLD WITH LOVE, JUSTICE AND PEACE.

Cindy


Rev. Cindy Garis
Executive Director
Oasis Ministries

www.oasismin.org

cindygaris@oasismin.org

If you wish to receive news from Oasis, make sure you sign up for our e-newsletter on our website or on our Facebook page.

 

 

Rev. Cindy Garis

Executive Director

Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Development

419 Deerfield Road

Camp Hill, PA  17011

cindygaris@oasismin.org

717-737-8222 

 

Explore www.oasismin.org

 

An Invitation for Sharing in the Winter Feast for the Soul 2010

Oasis graduate and former Board president, Marian Methner, shared the following YouTube link with me.
It is an interfaith invitation for 40 minutes of contemplation for 40 days.

Inspired by a Rumi poem, a woman creates a virtual worldwide sangha, inviting people of all faiths to join one another in meditation and prayer from January 15 to February 23 each year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3jjDaVKGY

I hope you will participate in the invitation to meditate for 40 minutes for 40 days – and experience transformation.

 

This was sent through Oasis as part of an e-newsletter, along with prayers for Haiti.

To view the entire email, click here

 

 

A reflection from Algonquin

Jim Goudie, participant on the contemplative canoe trip, shares the poetry and pictures below:

Drawing from the well of Christ
Contemplatively
Actively

--------------------------------------------

Walking in solitude

together
seeing ourselves and God
reflected

in the waters

in friendship

in words

in silence

in song and laughter and tears

in provision
in breeze and rain and fire
in loon, otter, eagle and gull
tree, mist, rock, stars and sun.
Gracious space!
loving touch!
filled with challenges
invitations to become.
Oh! the One who created
and is creating
us in this place.

-------------------------------------------

 

 

...and ye shall find

period

though some times
the fog persists
especially in some places
leaving us to persist

in hope

seeking

--------------------------------------

For more reflections on the Algonquin trip, please see Vicki Kensinger's blog at:
http://emmaatlast.wordpress.com/

finding my 'way back'

A reflection by Vicki Kensinger upon return from the Contemplative Canadian Canoe trip offered by Oasis:

 

dear friends,

 

as i sat in silent prayer by the backyard pond this morning, closing my eyes, listening, i heard within my heart the sounds of our voices singing. rather, i felt them there, felt the reverberations of the bass supporting the tenderness of  blessing. i noticed the graceful interweaving of our melodies, which carried along with them the tendrils of our time together. indeed we wove a most blessed container for the holy.  it is said in many cultures that creation was sung into being. even in our christian tradition there is the Word, uttered and outered from the mouth of God, that sings us into being. i cherish this sacred sound in my heart most of all.

 

finding our 'way back'. what does that mean? of course, it could be heard in so many ways, on so many levels. i suppose we could perhaps find our way back to algonquin itself, in memory or even in body someday. or we could be finding our 'way back' here, back to 'reality', so to speak, somehow carrying the deeper 'Reality' we picked up in that place with us, finding our 'way back' to our selves. what does it mean to you to find your 'way back' home? is the path narrow or wide? for me, i think perhaps 'the way' lies in spaciousness, finding moments throughout my day to round the corner to discover that surprising space that always awaits, opening out suddenly to beauty.

 

so as i sit, here by the pond, i am fully here. this is true. but i am also there, in that algonquin place within me, where my eyes are welcoming beauty, where my heart is receptive to filling, where tenderness is cherished as nourishment and death is embraced as sacred soil. somehow this feels different than clinging to what has been, for it is a carrying forth. a new body of water, from which i can drink, has been carved in the landscape of my heart. a quiet lagoon of deep peace has become a part of me. a place where i can go, alongside the loons, to play and be fed, as well as to cry out my distress and sing my mournful lament into the dark.....the dark of a nighttime sky where the stars feel so close i can almost reach out and touch them. and you all are a part of that carved out space.

 

and so i carry it with me, this 'way back', as does the turtle carry her shell, and i am at home wherever i go. i have marked the entrance with the stones of our being together, the way to a place of nourishment and safety. and i am no longer alone in that place. we are all-one. the sacredness of our song echoes in my heart. i close my eyes and we are floating, gunnelled up here in this place, being born along by Spirit, who is turning, turning, turning us so that we might experience Beauty.

 

may you feel my hand upon the side of your canoe,

 

all is well,

vicki