How can we trust the Mystery that is the Author of light and dark, life and death? What is the path that allows us to experience an encounter with this Mystery? Advent is a Season and Living Symbol of how such an encounter is available in every passing Moment. The late Annie Dillard urges us, in her writings, that we need to go straight to the wild reality of things to experience the indwelling of sacramental reality. Our gathering will facilitate an opportunity to explore together the aliveness and immediacy of that which she speaks, through poetic reflections, silence and contemplation.

Thomas Brennan has presented workshops and facilitated retreats on Spirituality, with a particular leaning on the wisdom of Fr. Thomas Keating for helping mine the riches of the Contemplative Tradition. He believes, during this time of accelerating technological advances, that retrieving the Contemplative Style can be an ally and resource as we negotiate through challenge and disorientation.