Friends worshipping at Congénies. Photo: Courtesy of Richard Thompson.
Becoming new
Richard Thompson reflects on a week of sharing at Congénies
A dozen French Friends met for a special sharing on the weekend of 11-12 November at the Maison Quaker of Congénies to consider the theme: ‘Every day is a new day?’ – a title that included an all-important question mark! An expert gave us a lecture and we shared our experiences.
We began with two quotes by Isaac Pennington, taken from Knowing the Mystery of Life Within: Selected Writings of Isaac Penington in Their Historical and Theological Context, the book by Melvin Keiser and Rosemary Moore.
All our words, all our conversation, yea, every thought in us, is to become new. Whatever comes from us, is to come from the new principle of life in us, and to answer that in others…
And from this Measure of Life, the capacity increaseth, the senses grow stronger: it sees more, feels more, tastes more, hears more, smells more.
We then shared our experiences of discernment, seeing the closed nature of our habits, valuing those insights of faith and confidence and, above all, sharing our daily practices of pausing, of living in the body and of actually listening to others.
During the week there was a session on Buddhist meditation, two separate sessions on the discipline of staying in the present moment, Meeting for Worship each day, tasty meals together and Sunday lunch outside in the sunshine with the trees of deep russet surrounding us.
In the last session we enjoyed sharing which moments had meant most to us during the weekend. We chose the theme for our next gathering, planned for 5-7 May 2018, which will be something on the lines of ‘Giving and Receiving this Measure of Life’.
So, what have I brought back from my experience of this gathering at Congénies? I see now that, at every moment, there are forces that encourage us to rest back into comfortable patterns and there is a force that helps us to connect with life.
This latter force we call ‘the promptings of love and truth in [our] hearts… the leadings of God.’
This is the newness we can experience every day.
