Exploring the spirituality of the Desert Fathers & Mothers alongside Scripture
10am on Wednesday 31st May - after lunch on Friday 2nd June 2023
In this two-night/day retreat we will journey together exploring the spirituality of the Desert Fathers & Mothers, through prayer, meditation, reflection and discussion - within the context of Biblical teaching. We will examine the lives of several individual Desert Fathers and Mothers as they sought to live out the Gospel. Who were the Desert Fathers and Mothers? Why did they flee to the desert? What aspects of their unique spirituality are relevant for us today? How important were these early experiments in monasticism? Why did St Benedict in his Rule of Life recommend a daily reading of the Desert Fathers and Mothers before Compline? And what caused spiritual giant Thomas Merton to state that the text Athanasius’s Life of St Antony - the story of the first Desert Father - is the most important monastic book - even more important than the Rule of St Benedict? Come along and let’s find out!
Led by Dr Peter Ruxton, please see his biography below the Programme
£150, includes accommodation and meals
PROGRAMME
Wednesday 31st May
11:45 College Community Eucharist in church
13:00 Lunch in Dining Hall
14:00 Introduction to the Desert Fathers & Mothers
15:30 Tea
16:00 St Antony – withdrawal & asceticism
Evagrius & Cassian – controlling thoughts
18:00 Supper
19:00 A Chance to Reflect & Question
21:30 Compline in Chapel (optional)
Thursday 1st June
07:30 BCP Eucharist (optional)
08:15 Breakfast
09:00 Abba Arsenius – silence & solitude
Abba Macarius – humility
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Group Reflection
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Abba Moses – loving neighbour & not judging others
St Pachomius – obedience
15:30 Tea
16:00 Time for Individual Reflection
16.30 Evening Prayer in Church (optional)
18:00 Supper
19.00 A Chance to Reflect & Question
21:30 Compline in Chapel
Friday 2nd June
07:30 Eucharist (optional)
08:15 Breakfast & Check out of rooms
09:00 Morning Prayer with college community in Chapel
10:00 Amma Syncletica – purity of heart & unceasing prayer
10:45 Coffee & Final Reflection
11:45 Closing worship together in Chapel
12:30 Lunch and depart
Peter Ruxton Biography
Peter was born in Nyasaland, now Malawi - went to school in Arusha, Tanzania - before boarding at Kingswood School in Bath. He studied for six years at Leeds University gaining a BSc and PhD in geological sciences before moving to Australia to work in mineral exploration. Returning to the UK in 1997, Peter studied for an MBA through the Universities of Bangor and Manchester, before joining the British Government’s aid arm - CDC or the Commonwealth Development Corporation, part of then DfiD or the Department for International Development - financing mining projects in the poorer parts of Africa. Having been made redundant in 2008, Peter took his investment track record and formed a new private equity fund called Tembo Capital.
It was in the deserts of Australia and Africa that Peter first discovered and started studying the spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. He has recently completed an MA in Christian Spirituality at Sarum College in Salisbury, focusing principally on the Desert Fathers and Mothers, and on Celtic Spirituality. Peter is a bird watcher, loves collecting fossils (of course!), makes sour dough bread, brews beer, and now lives with his stained-glass designer wife Hilary and family, near Stroud in Gloucestershire.