Quest Ministries: Quiet Days

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Quiet Days

I coordinated Quiet Days for Grace Church, Oxford, MA (http://www.gracechurchoxford.org/) during the most recent seasons of Advent and Lent. Here's a quick tutorial that may prompt you to participate.

What is a Quiet Day?

It’s a day, or part of a day, set apart from normal activities to pay attention to God and to His activity in our lives. It can be time spent alone or in community with others. At Grace, we typically begin with a Mass; then we spend extended times in silence with the Lord. A leader breaks the silence, from time to time, with devotional thoughts to provide ideas or themes for the participants to meditate on in the silence.

How long is a Quiet Day?

Our first two Quiet Days were held in the morning. We are thinking of offering a whole six-hour day to provide opportunities for more people to participate. The day would begin at 9:00 a.m. with a Mass. Then we would enter into silence. We would break for lunch at noon and experience silence again until 3:00 p.m. For a shorter Quiet Day, you could begin at 9 o’clock and leave after lunch. As an alternative, you could begin with lunch at noon and join us in silence until 3 o’clock. Another option is to enter and leave at various points as your schedule permits. Yet, for longer-lasting results, it is good to participate for as long as possible.

What will I do at a Quiet Day?

We will provide helpful resources for you to meditate on. The homily during the Mass and meditations throughout the day provide food for contemplation. If you have developed a method or a routine for being in silence with the Lord, we invite you to continue with that practice. You may feel God inviting you to meditate on a passage from the Bible that recently came to life for you. The best way to discover what a Quiet Day is all about is to come and to enter into the experience.

No comments:

Post a Comment

PROFILE

Contact Information:

Experience:

For over forty years Stan has developed people and organizations through preaching, teaching, organizing, writing, motivating, and listening. He especially enjoys interacting with people in one-to-one and group settings.

Stan has a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell. In 2012, he completed a certificate program in spiritual direction from Selah (http://leadershiptransformations.org/selah.htm).

Stan also loves to help people navigate life’s challenges by discussing popular stories. Fiction written by C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and a host of others help us understand how God’s Story interacts with our own.

Specialty Skills:

Organizing people, events, and projects

Analyzing challenges, and proposing and implementing solutions

Creative writing

Conversant with computer software and the Internet

Video-conferencing via Skype and other software

Accomplishments:

Stan led an organization that was on the brink of disbanding. Through his leadership it became a more vibrant cohesive group, optimistic about its future. He led its members in group activities. He also worked with its leaders to evaluate and update the organization's purpose, financial health, and organizational structure. As a result, the group became healthier, larger, and more outward focused and welcoming.

He led a group in a ten-week discussion of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The majority of the participants read 100 pages per week to prepare for their sessions. He met with the group for two hours each week to discuss the contents, truths, and applications of this beautiful piece of literature.

For several years Stan led a multi-week training course for an organization. The purpose of the training was to help members understand and communicate the organization's core values with potential members. He recruited people to be part of the training, taught them how to clearly express the principles, and provided the means for them to be in touch with potential members. Leaders emerged from this training program, confident in their ability to communicate.