Tower and Town, November 2018 (view the full edition)St Non's Retreat 2018I know that St. Non's is a place where I can 'retreat', take time out, reflect and refresh my soul. I can feel renewed and refilled with the loving spirit of the place created by the nuns in the most beautiful surroundings on the Pembrokeshire coast. Part of the time there is spent being led and taught, and part just absorbing the surroundings on cliff and shore walks of the Atlantic Ocean, where some swam, seals and birds abound, and we were blessed with brilliant sunlight. We were led by Colin Heber Percy, a recently ordained priest in the Pewsey parishes. He invited us to take a journey with Julian of Norwich by looking in depth at her 'Divine Revelations'. I had heard talk of Julian many times and visited her anchorite cell built into a church wall in Norwich, where she spent most of her life. Very little is known of her personal life. Her dates are given as 1342 to 1416 but the revelations themselves refer to a time in her life when, following a serious illness, she was given the last rites and following this had a series of sixteen visions of Jesus Christ which ended when she recovered from her illness a few days later. She wrote about these immediately after they had happened. Some years later she wrote a long text exploring the meaning of the visions. In our sessions we looked at some of these and were given glimpses of her theology and hopeful message that God's love for each and everyone of us is greater than we can know. He knows us inside out and therefore there is no need to hide anything from him as his love and compassion are always with us however sinful we have been. We need to let him into our lives and be guided by him. On the last evening we enjoyed sung choral evensong in St. David's Cathedral - a great treat, and the final gift was a walking meditation to the ruined chapel where St. David was born, along the cliff tops back to the tiny chapel next to the Retreat Centre for eucharist. The walk was interspersed with readings of writings of TS Eliot, Julian and Raymond Carver. Colin led us with love, compassion and understanding. Thank you. Rachel Rosedale |