2019 St Patrick on the Hill Annual Retreat

This year we have made the decision to not have our retreat in and around Hogsback, but to take some time out to go and recharge our spiritual batteries at one of our favourite locations in Keiskammahoek, Cata Lodge. There is something really special in getting away from our normal grind and responsibilities, and spend some time out with God and fellow Christ followers in a really beautiful and inspiring setting.

This year we are really blessed to have Dr Bill Domeris leading our retreat. Our topic for the retreat is "Loving God" and Bill will deal with all the dimensions of loving God, with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. This is a time for us to renew our relationship with God. We will emerge ourselves in the topic over 4 sessions and there will also be time to go and stroll through the Afro-montana forests, while contemplating our closeness with our awesome God.

Venue:
Cata lodge is about an hour an a half from Hogsback and is situated very high up in the Keiskammahoek mountains overlooking the Cata dam. The facilities are outstanding and the beautiful setting lends itself to inspiring reflection! You will stay in an award winning, three-star self-catering accommodation which includes self-catering chalets, a communal retreat area consisting of a fully equipped kitchen, a central fireplace, a dining area where you can enjoy your meals and a lounge area where you can chill paging through wonderful coffee table books and magazines. There is also an outdoor braai lapa overlooking the mountains and Cata village.


Cost and logistics:
The cost per person is R500 for the 2 nights accommodation and includes the 4 guided sessions. It excludes food and Maggie will tell you what to bring with, just check with her when you book your place.

We will depart at 10am on Thursday the 14th of November from Hogsback Information Centre and share lifts. We will return to Hogsback after lunch on Saturday afternoon, the 16th.

How to book:

• Send Maggie a Whatsapp message (0835566962) to book your place, after which she will confirm your booking with you and provide you with banking details for payment.              
• Closer to the date Maggie will tell you what to bring  regarding food and drinks as well as travel arrangements. 

Our annual retreat: How to change your mind!!!!

Our annual retreat is always a special time and this year it was held at a really special place, Hunterstoun, here in Hogsback itself. It was gently lead by Leon Van Niekerk. The focus was on taming our our thoughts and emotions for in order to experience spiritual growth. At a time were so many disturbing world and country events are stealing our joy, this quiet time was just what the doctor ordered to give us perspective.

We started off on Friday afternoon by exploring God's plan for spiritual growth and how our thoughts are game changers. We learned that it is not true that just because we thought of it it has to be true! Many of our thoughts come from a position of fear and fear is the opposite of faith. God did not wire our brains for fear, He created us to love. Fear has no place!

Our brains consist of 3 distinct areas ( emotions--> thinking--> Doing) with a logical process and we have to constantly be aware of how we allow our emotions to create toxic thoughts that results in negative deeds that make us feel guilty and so the cycle continues. To be closer to God we need to break that endless loop!!

We explored the principles of spiritual growth by first looking at what it is (Phil 3:13-14 and Gal 5:24-25). We reflected on that we were created in God's image (Gen 1:27) and that we need to choose carefully every day (Josh 24:15). The mind was created for good (Eccles 7:29) so that we have no need to fear at all.

So how did the mind get so corrupted (2 Cor 11:3) and how can we allow God to renew our minds (Rom 12:2). we have to constantly be aware that our thoughts define who we are (Prov 23:7) and if we want to break out of this negative cycle of toxic thoughts we need to focus our minds on Christ (1 cor 2:16). We have to commit to a process of re-organising our minds because God gave us the ability to choose.

In the first session on Saturday, we started by identifying our toxic thoughts and emotions and learned that toxic thoughts are thoughts that trigger negative and anxious emotions, which produce biochemicals that cause the body to stress. They are stored in our minds, as well as in the cells of our body. Examples of this is:

• Worries
• Could-have, would-have and if-only thoughts
• Swirling thoughts in our head at the moment
• Consuming thoughts
• Replaying things over and over in your mind

We then send some quiet time to identify our personal toxic thoughts (Matt 6:25-34) and for some of us this was really painful ground to step on! We thought about (and listed) what the deep rooted origins of our destructive thoughts are and what we are worrying about. Through this we realised that we miss out on life because of our worries. This text also give us guidance towards spiritual growth. 

This brought us to a way by which we can demolish toxic thoughts by replacing them with truthful spiritual thoughts. To demolish them we looked at how thoughts impact on so many things,  brain and body, our mental health and spiritual development (see Deut 20:19, Ps 34:11-16, Prov 3:7-8, Deut 5:9). Thoughts can make us physically ill and we therefore need to let go of all the baggage that are creating all these toxic thoughts. This is easier said than done but a practical idea is to maybe write a letter to the person that caused you pain. We do not need to give it to them but just committing it to paper and maybe burning it will be a physical way of letting go of what is keeping us mentally captive. So how do we let go from a spiritual perspective?

• Start with: Prov 4:20-22
• Rewrite events with positive thinking: Fil 4:8
• Replace the effects of crushing thoughts with the words of God James 1:21
• Our perspective counts with Christ the vine John 15:5
• Through meditation Josh 1:8
• Consequence Ps 46:10 

We then created a personal plan to implement thoughts and emotions towards spiritual growth. The following scriptures guides us in identifying 5 things to implement: 

• Col 3:15-17; Col 4:2-6; Phil 4:4-9; Prov 4:20-23 

We used the following questions to guide us:

• Awareness: Which thought (sometimes) get stuck in my mind that I want to address? And how do I want them to be part of me
• Thinking through: What (which thoughts) would I rather focus on mentally?
• Focus positively: How can I remind myself of these (GO(O)D) thoughts/truths daily? 
• Take action: What could I do to re-enforce new thoughts and express them (personally, with friends and family, strangers....)

We concluded this practical, inspirational session with a morning service on Sunday at the St Patrick Chapel were Leon summed it all up for us in this wonderful verse: 

We want to thank Norma for organising this time out for us and for Leon Van Niekerk for leading us in such a gentle way through sacred ground! 

 

St Patrick's Annual Retreat

The St Patrick’s Retreat is coming up soon. The Retreat will be held at Hunterstoun and led by Prof Leon van Niekerk. It will start on Friday11th November in the afternoon and include a braai. We return home for the night. Saturday will be during the morning and end with a bring and share lunch. The cost is very reasonable – R100.

This promises to be a very worthwhile retreat but only 7 members have put their names down so far and we feel that we should have at least 12 to make it worthwhile for Leon to make the trip. So we invite members to come forward. Will those who would like to attend please let Norma phone 045 962 1017 or Ann phone 045 962 1147 know by 25^th October. 

To see what a great time we had last year, read this blogpost: 

Cato retreat: A gentle journey into the heart of Jesus

Reminder : Programme for October and November

• 23^rd Liz Thomas; 
• 30^th Lay Ministers
• 6th November Neil Cooper 6^th  November at 3pm Christian Leaders Forum at Hunterstoun; 
• 10^th November -Council meeting at Elangeni at 4:30; 
• 11^th/12^th Retreat at Hunterstoun; 
• 13^th November- Retreat service; 
• 20^th David Williams and Thanksgiving Bring and Share Lunch at Little Timbers and farewell to Etienne and Lois Paroz  
• 27^th November Liz Thomas.

Cato retreat: A gentle journey into the heart of Jesus

Walking with Jesus. That is what we did over a 2 day period at the most amazing Cato lodge perched high up on the Amatola mountains overlooking a few villages and  Cato dam, close to Keiskammahoek. This heavenly abode formed the perfect backdrop to an inspiring retreat into gentleness, quietness and recharging of the soul.

We were a small group who set out in convoy from Hogsback along the back roads to Keiskammahoek. This in itself was a treat for me, passing through forests with little waterfalls and spectacular views over the valleys below.  My heart was full of expectancy to get to know my fellow villagers a bit better, to slow down after a frenetic year, to reconnect with God and to contemplate the personal crossroads that I am facing.

On arrival at our destination, we were greeted by little ones, both four legged and two legged, inviting us to wander back in time when we also had that childlike joyful wonder, devoid of cynicism, criticism and  world weariness.  This formed the pre-amble to thinking back to our eight-year old selves and asking the question of what this innocent version of ourselves would be telling us now. 

The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. Wonder is the opening to awe, and awe is the beginning of wisdom.  (Abraham Heshel)

And this is where we stopped to ponder that no matter how much we think we know, we never graduate from the school of spirituality and that we need to keep the element of childlike wonder and dependence on God. It was comforting to become quiet in order to explore the humanity  of Jesus and how He had to endure the pain of being human. This in turn means that he can identify with our pain and broken humanity. Just like us, He also did not know all the answers and was deeply dependent on God. We contemplated the brokenness of humanity by quietly exploring the questions....

• Why are we the way we are?
• Why do we hurt others and why do they hurt us?

Our struggles are vital if we are to love people unconditionally and become who we are meant to be. After contemplating Luke 5: 1-11 we realised that change is important to grow and reach our destiny and that we should not fear it.

All we need to do is to cleanse the doors of perception and we shall see things as they are: infinite (William Blake)

Before we can face change we need to come face to face with God, just like Jesus had to endure temptations and submit Himself to the will of his father. Difficult questions like "Am I a fraud?" and "Can I hear God?", teach us dependence on God. When we pray from a place of weakness, God hears us and always responds in kindness and mercy.

So, I cannot begin to express my gratitude to having had such a gentle experience in walking with Jesus alongside my fellow villagers. Vic Graham did not lead the retreat, he lived it with us, guiding us gently.  I loved the informal laidbackness of the few days we shared together with delightful food and company.

I also have to mention the walks and the quiet times which I have decided to embrace more regularly and make part of my time with God. Our one leisurely stroll into the forest ended up to be an extended hike and bush-scramble as we lost our way. The guys assured me that we were not lost despite the rest of the group sending a search party to look for us. But it ended up being a metaphor for my life space at this moment in time. I thought I was on an established mountain pathway with some beautiful streams, trees an shrubs, until a boomslang slithered past my feet and up the tree which made me stop and wait for my companions. We soon encountered a split in the pathway and somehow we made the wrong choices which lead us to scramble through thick vegetation in search for a way out of the forest. At no time did I feel scared. I felt God all around us. I saw Him in the beautiful old trees that have stood the test of time. I knew that my companions were there for with me and that we will eventually get through the thick of things. Which we did. And we had hope. And yes, they did leave lunch for us!

Thank you Norma for organising the retreat, Vic for leading it, my fellow villagers for letting me getting to know you better and God for blessing our time together. I am already booking my place for next year!

Here is the quotes from all our sessions: https://goo.gl/gN6UyF

And some photos:

Posted by Maggie Verster on Saturday, 7 November 2015