PURSUING HOLINESS
Saturday 2nd November 2024
Robert Elliott
Robert comes from an academic background in health sciences. His desire is to teach in a way that engages, challenges and brings bigger thinking. He enjoys lively and thoughtful debate. He reads widely particularly Christian writers – C.S. Lewis is a special favourite – and he has an
interest in Christian philosophy and apologetics. Alongside his professional career, he has delivered programmes that explore the writings of Christian thinkers and encourage Christian people to ‘think Christianly’.
With his wife, Elizabeth, Robert initiated Treasures of Darkness in 2023.
In the Bible we are encouraged to ‘pursue holiness’. In this Workshop/ Retreat we will explore the nature of biblical holiness and how we can grow in holiness. We shall also look at the historical, early, and current, cultural influences that may present obstacles to that growth. The writings of Christian thinkers and writers will be a framework to challenge us to live Holy lives in a multicultural and confused world.
This day will provide:
Interactive talks;
Learning together in small groups;
Time for personal reflection/ meditation.
You will receive:
A fuller understanding of what holiness ‘looks like lived’;
Insights into your personal obstacles to growing in holiness;
A clearer view of ways forward in holy living.
10am-4pm
Cost: £30 per person, includes refreshments but please bring a packed lunch
LIVING WITH LOSS
11th-14th November
Fr Peter Williams OSB
Simon Holland Brown Dip.Couns MBACP
For anyone struggling with bereavement, Fr Peter Williams and Simon Holland-Brown (an experienced bereavement counsellor) offer spiritual space for healing and reconciliation. The retreat uses the Benedictine monastic framework of prayer to provide a spiritual and healing space where the effects of dealing with bereavement and grief can be discussed in a safe and open way. It will offer both a group context to discuss experiences more generally, time for 1:1 accompaniment and also space for silence, prayer and reflection. Bereavement can never fully dealt with finally, but this offers a way forward within a spiritual and healing context.
Cost: £330 per person
THE LIFE JOURNEY MAP WORKSHOP
Saturday 16th November 2024
Elizabeth Elliott
Elizabeth coaches and leads those with a desire to go deeper into a clearer, more fulfilling and purpose filled life. She has a heart for embracing life’s joys and brokenness and with over 20 years experience enables others to seek a richer lifestyle. Elizabeth enables others to discovering life’s unique purpose that we all have. Living through depression, she has discovered hidden treasures which led her into a life changing adventure. With her husband, Robert, “Treasures of Darkness” was birthed in 2023.
This workshop retreat offers time and space for a “stop, look and listen day”….. providing a tool for seekers on life’s journey with a fresh look at life so far… including:
Making use of trials and setbacks….
Opportunities to re-look at our life’s events and see them in new ways
Blessings of living from gratitude….
You will receive:
Fresh perspectives on where Life has taken you so far
Encouragements to see how life events grow together
Transforming our view of our life events into something that makes real differences and opens up the future….
Come along and see how to make sense of your past; Create your own unique Life Journey Map to treasure; move forward into your future.
10am-4pm
Cost: £30 per person, includes refreshments but please bring a packed lunch
ADVENT RETREAT
3rd-5th December
Take time out to reflect on the season of Advent and the message it has about preparing us for Christmas.
The time of Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year and is a good time to take stock as we prepare for the journey of the Christian story and the meaning of the incarnational.
Join Fr Peter as he uses both scripture and reflection to discover how God might be calling you to open up in a deeper way to his presence.
Cost: £220 per person
TIME OUT – individual private retreat
9th-12th December
3rd-9th February 2025
17th-20th February 2025
3rd-6th March 2025
minimum 2 nights
Spend a few days at Worth Abbey enjoying the rhythm of the monastic prayer and liturgy, time in reflection and the peace of the Sussex countryside. No set programme other than an optional daily Lectio Divina session, the usual monastic timetable of divine office and liturgy and the opportunity for a 1:1 meeting with a member of the monastic community.
Meal times: Breakfast 8-9am, Lunch 1:15pm and Supper 7:15pm. Worth Abbey Church Liturgy and prayer
COST: £90 per person, per night
If the dates above are not convenient, please contact us to check availability for your preferred dates as we may be able accommodate you.
FINDING STILLNESS
27th-30th January 2025
12th-15th May 2025
16th-19th June 2025
‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46). Come to Worth Abbey and encounter the power of stillness. Through the Benedictine tradition, discover how stillness can be part of your everyday life and how transformative it can be. The retreat will include teachings in Lectio Divina and stilling the mind as well as an opportunity to have a 1:1 meeting with a member of the monastic community.
COST: £330 per person, single occupancy (3 nights)
TAI CHI & MEDITATION
7th-10th April 2025
2nd-5th June 2025
Fr Peter Williams OSB
This retreat uses some practises from Tai Chi to explore the concept of balance and energy and how they relate to prayer in the form of stillness and mediation. A truly mind/body/spirit retreat, Fr Peter uses the insights gained from 30 years of practise to guide you in how the body as ‘a temple of the Holy Spirit’ is very central to having a healthy prayer life. No previous experience of Tai Chi is necessary.
Limited number of places available.
Cost: £330 per person
BENEDICTINE INDIVIDUALLY GUIDED RETREAT:
17th-23rd March 2025
7th-13th July 2025
An IGR is an individual guided retreat and an opportunity to participate in a contemplative retreat. The Benedictine IGR takes the general concept of an IGR and adapts it for a Benedictine setting. It offers a contemplative Benedictine environment as a place of discernment – where you follow the monastic rhythm of the day but also meet up daily with a spiritual guide to reflect on what God might be saying to you at this time.
With a maximum of 10 participants, the retreat is largely held in silence and will also follow the daily rhythm of the monastic office.
COST: £110 per person, per night (minimum 3 nights)
THE WISDOM OF ST BENEDICT
14th-16th February 2025
Fr Martin McGee OSB
The spirituality of the Rule of St Benedict is a spirituality of the everyday. For St Benedict small things are very important because it is through the small things that we express respect and love for others; all the more because the greatest part of our existence is made up of these small gestures which express our deepest identity.
St Benedict wishes us to pay close attention to the everyday; he is not in the least interested in the spectacular or the sensational. It is the ordinariness of our daily encounters which interests him, those little nothings of daily life which give praise to God and safeguard love.
Fr Christophe, a monk of Tibhirine, describes it thus in one of his little poems:
One must risk everything
in the little nothings
of every day.
All of this everyday life is the arena where our conversion to Christ and the Christian way of life is played out.
Opportunity for a 1:1 meeting with a monk.
Cost: £220 per person
LENT RETREAT
11th-13th March 2025
Take time out during Lent to review your life and ask where God is calling you to change – to simplify things. Fr Peter takes the desert father tradition and the writings of John Cassian to examine thoughts and feelings and to see how it talks to us in the 21st century. A good opportunity to reflect and to pray for God’s guidance at this key time in the Christian year.
Cost: £220 per person
JULIAN OF NORWICH
1st-3rd April 2025
Fr David Jarmy OSB
Further information coming soon
EASTER TRIDUUM (St Bruno’s)
17th-20th April 2025
Celebrate the Easter Triduum at Worth Abbey. Be in fellowship with others as we follow the powerful liturgy of the Triduum and allow ourselves to be formed by it.
Explore the mysteries at the core of our faith: The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although separate, this group will form part of the bigger Worth Community which includes the local parish and a Young Adults’ Easter Triduum retreat that will be staying in Worth School.
Cost: £360 per person
PRAYING THE MASS
29th April – 1st May 2025
Fr David Jarmy OSB
Further information coming soon
THE ALGERIAN MARTYRS
10th-12th June 2025
Fr Martin McGee OSB
The story of the love of the Tibhirine community for its Muslim neighbours in Algeria has lit a fire which refuses to go out. In 1996 on the night of the 26th/27th March seven monks from the Trappist monastery of Tibhirine, 96 km south of Algiers, were kidnapped by Muslim fundamentalists and fifty-six days later on 21st May all of them were beheaded.
The inspiring witness of the Tibhirine monks came to the attention of the world thanks to Xavier Beauvois’ film Of Gods and Men, winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival in 2010. This film captured the imagination of countless people, many of whom had no religious affiliation or interest in religion. They were above all amazed by the close friendship which the monks had established with their Muslim neighbours.
What most people don’t know is that there are twelve other martyrs – priests, religious sisters, one Marist brother and a Dominican bishop, Pierre Claverie, who were also assassinated. The lives of these nineteen martyrs speak powerfully to us today of the Good News which can break down barriers and light a fire of hope and peace in the hearts of many.
Reflecting on the almost total destruction of the Church in Algeria, Br Paul of Tibhirine wrote in January, 1995, shortly before his martyrdom: “Nevertheless I believe that the Good News is being sown, the seed is germinating … The Spirit is at work; he works in the depths of people’s hearts. Let us be available so that he may act in us through prayer and a loving presence to all our brothers.” By giving their lives out of love, the nineteen martyrs continue to inspire both Christians and Muslims. The seeds they have sown are bearing an abundant harvest.
Fr Martin has written five books about the witness of the nineteen Algerian martyrs (1994-1996). His talks will seek to show their relevance for our own lives in a world becoming increasingly more divided by race and religion.
Cost: £220 per person
ICON PAINTING RETREAT
29th June – 6th July 2025
Led by Hanna Ward
The course will provide an introduction to all aspects of traditional icon painting: drawing an image onto a gessoed board and painting with natural and semi-precious pigments with egg tempera and using clay and lose leaf gold leaf for gilding. The focus is to understand the history, symbolism and meaning of icons and to gain the basic skills to be able to draw and paint them. The emphasis will be on copying and tracing an old image correctly and carefully onto the icon board and learning to paint from dark to light in a traditional iconographic way. Participants will be given a step-by-step guide through the various disciplines of this nearly 2000-year-old tradition.
The aim is to paint through six full days from Monday to Saturday and finish the icons during this retreat then have them blessed in the Abbey Church on Sunday.
Cost: TBC