Church guide

Sharing worship, discussion, and burgers & hot dogs with Community Covenant Church of Hopkinton, MA this Sunday! We are all one in God’s kingdom! #SundaysAtTheSanctuary

What a blessing it is to join in worship this morning with our sisters and brothers from Community Covenant Church of Hopkinton, MA! “We are one body in this one Lord.” #SundaysAtTheSanctuary

Creative Contemplation with Christ Discovering the mystery of God through the act of creative expression We originated in the image of the Divine Creator. In the act of creating as you contemplate God, you discover the mystery of the Excellent One in new and exciting ways. We offer a variety of creative expressions to help you connect with God. You don’t need to have any artistic ability to experience this offering. We meet July 27th from 9am-12 noon Register online at www.sanctuaryatwoodville.org Suggested Donation $20 Email contact: [email protected]

Invite your Dad or Grad to come to Creative Contemplation In Christ Saturday, June 15th, 9 a.m.-Noon The Sanctuary at Woodville 249 Wood Street, Hopkinton, MA Suggested Donation $20 Registration Required: https://www.sanctuaryatwoodville.org/creative-contemplation.html Come away with the Lord for a morning of being contemplative in the creative. We have special spaces created for you to come away and be refreshed in the Lord. No artistic ability needed, just a desire to be in a contemplative space to listen and enjoy the Lord. The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone. The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers. The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived. I hear the cooing of doves in our land, filling the air with songs to awaken you and guide you forth. Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you? The early signs of my purposes and plans are bursting forth. The budding vines of new life are now blooming everywhere. The fragrance of their flowers whispers, “There is change in the air.” Arise, my love, my beautiful companion, and run with me to the higher place. For now is the time to arise and come away with me. Song of Songs 2:11-13 TPT

The front garden...love picking bouquets for worship service right out front of our doors!

Our beloved friend and Hopkinton senior resident Linda DiBona needs our help. Won't you please join us in showering her with prayers of healing? https://www.gofundme.com/help-for-linda-dibona039s-accident-amp-recovery

We are thrilled to join with Jennifer Layte in our first book signing event! Put it on your calendar and plan to buy some early Christmas gifts of “Favored One”. https://the-pilgrimage.org/2019/06/07/proofs/

The Sanctuary is again happy to offer: TRANSFORMATIONAL LISTENING 1 The next cohort begins October 2nd! ALL are welcome to TL1 Soul Care Companions. This is a nine month program where you will experience and grow in the art of contemplative listening, and develop the skill to facilitate a transformational listening companion group or what we fondly call TLC. This program also offers you the space to discern a call as a spiritual director. Location and Dates TL-1 Soul Care Companions is being offered at The Sanctuary in Hopkinton, MA and will meet on the first Wednesday of each month beginning October 2, 2019 from 6:30 p.m to 9:00 p.m. What will be required of you? Monthly attendance Monthly reading requirements Monthly spiritual practices Outcomes of the Program: Introduction to the ministry of spiritual formation Experience and growth in the art of contemplative listening Introduction to spiritual direction Exposure to the different streams of Christianity This program serves as a prerequisite for TL-2 Spiritual Direction Training Cost of the Program: The cost for this nine month program is $785. A fee of $200 is due upon acceptance with monthly payments of $65 required thereafter. PAX hopes that the monthly payment schedule will help to ease the cost of the program. Fees are to be made payable to PAX and sent to the attention of Rama Ziegenhals, PO Box 93, Essex, MA 01929. Registration: https://paxcenter.wufoo.com/forms/transformational-listening/

Journey with The Trinity: The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius You are invited to join us in this transformational experience beginning this fall. Sign up by August 15, 2019, first come-first served. Participants’ Recommendation: "It has been an enormous privilege to participate in the Ignatian Exercises this past year with Laurel. The exercises took me on a unique and blessed spiritual journey deeper into the love of God. Not only have I been awakened to a more profound sense of God's love for me, but my love for Him has grown; as I've received the abundance of His love, I am experiencing an increased ability to extend love to others. Also, with each passing week my experience of God's presence has become more constant; this is all pure gift and grace. Laurel's gentle and insightful guidance and companionship have truly enriched this sacred, life-giving journey. I am so very grateful to have had this opportunity to be directed by Laurel on this Ignatian Adventure." Journey with The Trinity: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (a nine-month journey). Do you sense that you have hit a wall in your spiritual life? Maybe the spiritual disciplines with which you have been engaging have been devoid of life for you for some time. Is your soul needing to dive deeper into the wonder and joy of God’s love and grace? Consider participating with us at The Sanctuary at Woodville in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius beginning in September. Sign up is first come, first served, and the deadline for signup is August 15, 2019 for this year’s group. It is a rich experience that has served to increase the participant’s intimacy with God. Reply to this email to inquire or sign up. Two recommendations: "It has been an enormous privilege to participate in the Ignatian Exercises this past year with Laurel. The exercises took me on a unique and blessed spiritual journey deeper into the love of God. Not only have I been awakened to a more profound sense of God's love for me, but my love for him has grown; as I've received the abundance of His love, I am experiencing an increased ability to extend love to others. Also, with each passing week my experience of God's presence has become more constant; this is all pure gift and grace. Laurel's gentle and insightful guidance and companionship have truly enriched this sacred, life-giving journey. I am so very grateful to have had this opportunity to be directed by Laurel on this Ignatian Adventure." “As I read over my journal at the end of the retreat, I was so grateful to see the specific changes that the nine months spent on this Ignatian retreat resulted in for me. I know God’s love for me in a more personal way, and am beginning to believe in a deep way that I am truly valuable to him, created just for such a time as this. I am able to approach Jesus and the Father in a different way. Having a history of approaching God as a father who is never pleased, I now am able to sit in his presence and believe he wants me to be with him and is pleased with me as I am. I am beginning to learn that God is my heavenly husband, and am learning to turn to him for needs that my late husband provided for me. I have experienced continuing healing of my grief, and am farther along in my grief journey. I am beginning to learn to respond to God’s invitation as he unfolds his plan before me, rather than struggling to make things happen in my life. I am being set free from bitterness that I have often carried when relationships did not go as I wanted. This has been a real freedom for me.” What is involved: We will use the book, The Ignatian Adventure: Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius in Daily Life by Kevin O'Brien, SJ. It offers "32 weeks of prayer and meditations to draw participants into a deeper encounter with God." For our Journey with The Trinity, we will follow this prayer and meditation guide (meditations are almost all based on Scripture passages). The daily time commitment involves 45 minutes a day in prayer/meditation, then journaling about your prayer experience. The journaling is to help you practice daily awareness as to what the Lord is bringing up in your life, as well as helping you see overall movements of the Spirit in your life. It is from your daily prayer/meditation/journaling experiences that you will share with the group, in group spiritual direction once a month, about the movement of the Spirit in your life (the director and the group will help you discern about that movement by their listening to God on your behalf during the time together). The once a month spiritual direction with me will be along the same lines, to help you attend more closely to themes that God is raising up in your life through your meditation/prayer/journaling. Each week of the Exercises there is a specified "grace" prayed for that is very simple. At the end of each week, you evaluate whether or not you have received that grace and if you are ready to move on. If you are not ready to move to the next week and grace, you simply stay with the first week, staying with particular meditations offered within that week until you sense release from the Spirit to move on. Here is more of what Kevin says about the purpose of the Exercises: ...it is very practical: to grow in union with God, who frees us to make good decisions about our lives and to 'help souls.' Ignatius invites us into an intimate encounter with God, revealed in Jesus Christ, so that we can learn to think and act more like Christ. The exercises help us grow in interior freedom from sin and disordered loves so that we can respond more generously to God's call in our life. The Exercises demand much of us, engaging our intellect and our emotion, our memory and will. Making the Exercises can be both exhilarating and exhausting; it's no wonder that Ignatius compared making the Spiritual Exercises to doing physical exercise such as 'taking a walk, traveling on foot, and running'. The Exercises are a school of prayer. The two primary forms of praying taught in the Exercises are meditation and contemplation. In meditation, we use our intellect to wrestle with basic principles that guide our life. Reading Scripture, we pray over words, images, and ideas. We engage our memory to appreciate the activity of God in our life. Such insights into who God is and who we are before God allow our hearts to be moved. Contemplation is more about feeling than thinking. Contemplation often stirs the emotions and inspires deep, God-given desires. In contemplation, we rely on our imaginations to place ourselves in a setting from the Gospels or in a scene proposed by Ignatius. Scripture has a central place in the Exercises because it is the revelation of who God is, particularly in Jesus Christ, and of what God does in our world. In the Exercises, we pray with Scripture, we do not study it. Although Scripture study is central to any believer's faith, we leave for another time extended biblical exegesis and theological investigation. The movements of the Exercises are in five sections, the first one being a section of preparation, and the other four are called "weeks" but are not calendar weeks. Each section focuses on a different movement of the Spirit in our lives. Each section is clearly discussed and laid out. The exercises are NOT academic at all, and the language of Ignatius has been modernized for our ease of understanding. Kevin's book also offers a brief overview of the life of St. Ignatius to help us understand more of his motivation in writing these Exercises. Cost: The cost for the nine month retreat would be $1,000 per person which would include everything (individual spiritual direction monthly, group spiritual direction monthly, three Saturday all day retreats) but the purchase of Kevin's book and your own journal. If the cost is prohibitive, please let us know and we can seek an arrangement. The payment can be divided into monthly payments or in one lump sum, as would suit your budget best.

I highly recommend this fabulous opportunity! https://the-pilgrimage.org/2019/05/29/the-next-step/

Community is literally our lifeline. We at The Sanctuary are seeking to build this kind of community. We would love for you to join us Sundays at 10 a.m. with lunch following. https://qz.com/1570179/how-to-make-friends-build-a-community-and-create-the-life-you-want/

Helping People Grow in Greater Intimacy with God Through Art, Retreats, Quiet and Cozy Spaces, Spiritual Direction and More! - https://mailchi.mp/ad5022b3c94a/helping-people-grow-in-greater-intimacy-with-god-through-art-retreats-quiet-and-cozy-spaces-spiritual-direction-and-more

Now that Spring has Sprung in New England, why not take a morning and enjoy some leisurely time with God?

Creative Contemplation With Christ Saturday, May 18th, 9am-12 noon Sanctuary at Woodville-249 Wood Street, Hopkington, MA Come away with the Lord for a morning of being contemplative in the creative. We have special spaces created for you to come away and be refreshed in the Lord. No artistic ability needed, just a desire to be in a contemplative space to listen and enjoy the Lord. "The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone. The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers. The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived. I hear the cooing of doves in our land, filling the air with songs to awaken you and guide you forth. Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you? The early signs of my purposes and plans are bursting forth. The budding vines of new life are now blooming everywhere. The fragrance of their flowers whispers, “There is change in the air.” Arise, my love, my beautiful companion, and run with me to the higher place. For now is the time to arise and come away with me." Song of Songs 2:11-13 TPT Suggested Donation $20 Registration is required. https://www.sanctuaryatwoodville.org/creative-contemplation.html

Registration closes next Monday, April 1. https://www.sanctuaryatwoodville.org/womens-retreat.html

Are shame and invisibility part of your story? If so, how are they driving your story? The Sanctuary at Woodville co-director and retreat leader Laurel Coolbaugh explains the underlying purpose for the topic of this upcoming women’s retreat, “Shame and Invisibility: A Retreat For All Women” on April 5th & 6th at The Sanctuary. REGISTER HERE: https://www.sanctuaryatwoodville.org/womens-retreat.html

“Only Thou art holy There is none beside Thee; Perfect in power, in love, and purity.” #SundaysAtTheSanctuary

On this day when the freedom to worship is once again under attack... We are here. We came here for Friday morning prayer, just as those in Christchurch, New Zealand came to their place of worship to pray. In the name of Jesus, in the face of evil, we will keep coming. That’s how God’s goodness wins. Let us stand, and pray, in unity against evil. —Gethin, The Sanctuary.

What a blessing it is to join in worship this morning with our sisters and brothers from Community Covenant Church of Hopkinton, MA! “We are one body in this one Lord.” #SundaysAtTheSanctuary

Are shame and invisibility part of your story? If so, how are they driving your story? The Sanctuary at Woodville co-director and retreat leader Laurel Coolbaugh explains the underlying purpose for the topic of this upcoming women’s retreat, “Shame and Invisibility: A Retreat For All Women” on April 5th & 6th at The Sanctuary. REGISTER HERE: https://www.sanctuaryatwoodville.org/womens-retreat.html

Celebrate our Lord's Advent with us! Creative Contemplation with Christ Come and listen to God, pray, contemplate and create Saturday, December 15, 9-noon 249 Wood Street, Hopkinton, MA Suggested Donation $20 Registration Required: http://sanctuaryatwoodville.weebly.com/saturday-quiet-days.html

“Ring the bells! Ring the bells! Emmanuel has come.” Merry Christmas!

The Lord was here tonight! Happy new year and God bless you!

Thanks to Craig, Shelly, and Steph for a wonderful night of worship!

The Sanctuary At Woodville is officially OPEN! Praise the Lord!