Time: every Monday, 7 – 8 pm (South African Standard Time)
Centering Prayer followed by Lectio Divina or other ancilliary contemplative practices.
Venue: Zoom – for the Zoom link and more info, contact Brian (details below).
Contact person: Brian
WhatsApp – 083 392 6104
Email: bja2885@gmail.com
Venue: Rose Village, Randburg.
Time: 3 – 4 pm (South African Standard Time)
Please call Heather to find out more!
Contact person: Heather
072 584 7246
Time: 3 – 4 pm
A time of Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina and faith sharing.
Venue: Zoom.
Please contact Heather to receive the Zoom link ahead of time.
Contact person: Heather –
heather.chapell24@gmail.com
This event takes place in Pretoria next year. We will share more details as they become available – click here to read more about Mary Dwyer, our guest speaker.
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rouwkoop Road, Rondebosch.
Programme: The Imperative of Contemplative Prayer
Prayer oneth the soul to God. The practice of contemplative prayer was the foundation of the life of Julian of Norwich. Such prayer is a divine call to which we must also respond, if we wish to deepen our love relationship with Jesus Christ. It is by entering every day into our own private enclosure of silence and stillness that the mind is able to expand beyond the confines of our earthly reality into the inner dimension of pure awareness that flows from Divine Awareness. It is there that we may realize, as Julian wrote, that “God is nearer to us than our own soul” and that God is “the ground of all our whole life in love.” It is there, in the silence, that we discover there are no boundaries to a mystical life. We have only to begin and the journey is eternal.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
A day of centering prayer and silence.
2023 is a Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Venue: Christian Brothers Centre, Stellenbosch.
Programme: Oneing in Trinity
The trinity is our maker, the trinity is our keeper [protector], the trinity is our everlasting lover, the trinity is our endless joy and our bliss, by our lord Jesus Christ and in our lord Jesus Christ.
We will enter into Julian’s very personal revelation of the Blessed Trinity as Creator, Protector, and Lover and ponder her mystical experience of being “knitted and oned” in Trinitarian love. What does this mean? We will question what impact a deeper realization of “Trinitarian oneing” would have on our daily lives.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
A free, globally-hosted 23-hour day of prayer accessible via Zoom.
In the global unity of silence as God’s first language, we hold vigil for suffering humanity and all creation, and we honor Fr. Thomas Keating’s birthday (March 7) and the growing presence of Christ among us.
Contemplative Outreach South Africa will be leading the silence from 10 to 11 am SAST.
We will be using one Contemplative Outreach Ltd. Zoom platform throughout the event.
Access the prayer chapel using this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81104694536?pwd=RzF5bm1kNXdUc2pPQjNub2MybkxIdz09
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Pinelands.
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Programme: The Passion of Christ
The precious plenty of his dearworthy blood overflows all the earth, and is ready to wash all creatures of sin who are of good will, have been, and shall be.
During the season of Lent, we will contemplate the Passion of Christ, as vividly experienced by Julian of Norwich in her visions. We will examine her profound insights on the Passion, especially that she saw “no wrath in God.” On the contrary, she understood more deeply that “our lord was never wroth nor never shall be. For he is God, he is good, he is truth, he is love, he is peace.” And furthermore, “God is that goodness that may not be wroth, for God is nothing but goodness.” Julian will show us that it is only our deep-seated fears of God’s judgment as well as our persistent “contrariousness” that keep us from fully experiencing God’s unconditional love and boundless mercy.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Venue: St Francis Anglican Church
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Francis Anglican Church
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
A day of centering prayer and silence.
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Venue: Christian Brothers Centre, Stellenbosch
Programme: Christ’s Transformation
And just in that same time that it seemed to me, by all appearances, that his life might no longer last, and the showing of the end must needs be near— suddenly, as I beheld the same cross, his face changed into a joyful expression.
With Julian of Norwich and Mary Magdalene, we will enter into the glorious experience of seeing Christ transformed on the cross into glory and truly risen from the dead on Easter. And we will witness how all our own sorrow will suddenly be turned into joy. We will also explore the ways in which faith in the reality of Christ’s bodily resurrection – and our own – enables us to live resurrected lives even now.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Zoom
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Venue: Christian Brothers Centre, Stellenbosch
Programme: All Shall Be Well and The Parable of the Lord and the Servant
Sin is behovely [necessary], but alle shalle be wele, and alle shalle be wele, and alle manner of thing shalle be wele.
During this retreat, we will consider Julian’s agonized questions concerning how “alle shalle be wele” in a world so corrupted by sin and the inevitable suffering that results from misdeeds. These questions may haunt us, too. Julian could not reconcile the earthly judgments of the Church with the “lack of wrath or blame” that she saw in Christ on the cross. She cried out to the Lord for clarity and he gave her a visual parable of “a Lord and a Servant” that took twenty years for her to decipher fully. This revelation eventually eased her mind and heart and became the foundation of her mystical theology. We will explore the deeper meaning of alle shalle be wele in the light of the Parable, in search of our own spiritual peace. And we will reflect on the ways in which the Parable relates directly to our own lives.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Venue: St Francis Anglican Church
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rondebosch.
Programme: Resting in the Sacred Heart
And with this, our good lord said full blissfully: “Lo, how I loved thee,” as if he had said: “My darling, behold and see thy lord, thy God, that is thy maker and thy endless joy. See thine own brother, thy savior. My child, behold and see what delight and bliss I have in thy salvation, and for my love enjoy it with me.
Julian was invited to enter mystically through the cleft made by the soldier’s lance into Christ’s Sacred Heart in order to experience the length, and breadth, and depth of his love. We are all invited to enter into his Sacred Heart as well. But do we dare? Can we risk the leap of faith into the Heart of Divine Love and surrender all our fears and doubts, as Julian did? Can we truly “let go” of everything in order to rest in the Lord?
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Padre Pio
Contact: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Zoom
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
A morning of centering prayer and silence.
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rondebosch. The Griffiths Room.
Programme: The Nature of Prayer
And all this our lord brought suddenly to my mind, and showed these words and said: “I am the ground of thy beseeching. First it is my will that thou have it, and next I make thee to will it, and next I make thee to beseech it—and thou beseechest it! How should it then be that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?”
We will explore Christ’s sublime revelations to Julian of Norwich on the true nature of prayer, the different types of prayer, and how it is essential that we continue to pray even in times of dryness, discouragement, and disappointment. We will also seek to fathom Julian’s description in the Sixteenth Revelation of sublime, mystical prayer in which “the soul that thus beholds, makes itself like to him that it is beheld, and oneth it in rest and in peace by his grace.”
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Francis Anglican Church
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rouwkoop Road, Rondebosch. The Griffiths Room.
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Programme: “The Godly Will”
I saw and understood full securely that in each soul that shall be saved is a godly will that never assented to sin, nor never shall. Which will is so good that it may never will evil, but evermore continually it wills good and works good in the sight of God.
We will explore what Julian means by the “godly will” and how it describes who we are in our essential nature, at the very core of our being. It is essential to our health of mind and body that we understand our great dignity in the eyes of our Creator. Even when we fall into sin, or fail to live up to our expectations, we never lose our divinely created nature. Julian assures us that our “godly will” is ever kept safe and secure in the ground of our Christ-redeemed humanity. And throughout our lives, the “godly will” becomes our motivation and strength in guiding others on their journey into God.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Venue: Christian Brothers Centre, Stellenbosch
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Programme: Julian of Norwich and The Mystical Path
For God is never out of the soul, in which he shall dwell blissfully without end.
In this retreat, we will seek to discover the phases of Julian’s own mystical path, from a young girl who sought “three gifts” from God, to a mature woman who, even in isolation, loneliness and depression, experienced God as “life, love, and light.” How can we perceive, like Julian, that God is truly with us and never “out of the soul”? Julian tells us that we must go into the ground of the soul to cultivate a deep “love-longing” for God. At the same time, we must be open and receptive to the Lord’s continuing work of purification within us. We must remain “in longing and in penance, until the time that we are led so deep into God that we verily and truly know our own soul.” It is a lifelong journey, but Julian is certain that the Lord himself will lead us into a “high deepness” of contemplative prayer “in the same love with which he made us, and in the same love with which he bought us, by mercy and grace, through the virtue of his blessed passion.”
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Origins
Facilitator: Marita Roos
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Zoom
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rondebosch. The Griffiths Room.
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Programme: The Motherhood of God
And thus in our creation God almighty is our natural father, and God all wisdom is our natural mother, with the love and the goodness of the holy ghost, who is all one God, one lord. And in the knitting and in the oneing he is our very true spouse, and we are his beloved wife and his fair maiden, with which wife he was never displeased. For he says: “I love thee and thou lovest me, and our love shall never be separated in two.”
We will examine Julian’s groundbreaking mystical theology of the Motherhood of God. From her lifelong contemplation of the revelations, she became convinced that “the deep wisdom of the trinity is our mother, in whom we are all enclosed.” How does Julian’s mystical theology of the Motherhood of God challenge your image of divinity? Do you conceive of God as the most tender-hearted, all-loving, and all-forgiving Mother, ever attentive to your needs, fears, frailties, and hopes? Always ready to guide and encourage you? And always willing to wrap you in her arms when you fail? Can you imagine that God is always pleased with your smallest efforts? Julian will help us re-imagine and enlarge our understanding of God.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Zoom
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rondebosch.
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Programme: “Seek, Suffer, and Trust”
For it [the soul] may do no more than seek, suffer, and trust. . . . The seeking with faith, hope and charity pleases our lord, and the finding pleases the soul, and fulfills it with joy.
We will examine what Julian means by her advice to her evencristens [fellow Christians] that all our lives we must “seek, suffer, and trust.” How do we relate these attitudes to our own contemplative practice? Can we discover ever deeper reasons for our daily contemplative prayer and realize the ways in which it can utterly transform our mind and enlighten our heart? If so, then we will be able to live more fully as “children of the resurrection.”
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: Zoom
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rondebosch. The Griffiths Room.
Programme: Love is the Meaning
“What, wouldest thou know thy lord’s meaning in this thing [the whole revelation]? Know it well, love was his meaning.”
Julian’s final realization was that “love was the lord’s meaning” in all the revelations. Can we believe that love is [and was] the Lord’s meaning in our own lives? The meaning of everything that delights us, enriches us, and inspires us, as well as everything that thwarts us, rips open our hearts, and seems to defeat us? Can we hope that “alle shalle be wele” because God loves us and will never be angry with us, blame us, give up on us, or abandon us? We know that in Christ we shall not and can not be overcome by evil. This is Christ’s promise to us from the gospels and from his revelations to Julian. That is also Julian’s promise to every one of us, her beloved evencristens.
A Year of Celebrating Julian of Norwich during the 650th Anniversary of her Revelations of Divine Love
With Veronica Mary Rolf
Please Note: Translations from the Middle English of Julian’s Revelations excerpted below are from An Explorer’s Guide to Julian of Norwich (IVP Academic Press, 2018) © Copyright by Veronica Mary Rolf.
Contact person: Janie Potgieter (janipotgieter01@gmail.com)
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
Venue: St Francis Anglican Church
Contact person: Wendy (wndmaree@gmail.com)
This event takes place in Pretoria next year. We will share more details as they become available – click here to read more about Mary Dwyer, our guest speaker.