{"id":1126,"date":"2019-01-03T13:25:12","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T17:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/?p=1126"},"modified":"2019-01-04T01:17:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T05:17:51","slug":"womens-christmas-retreat-2019-by-way-of-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/womens-christmas-retreat-2019-by-way-of-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Christmas Retreat 2019: By Way of the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Image: Wise Women Also Came<\/em> \u00a9 Jan Richardson<\/p>\n

Friends, it is almost Women’s Christmas! I want to share a gift I’ve created for you in celebration of the day.<\/p>\n

You might know that in some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is also celebrated as Women’s Christmas. Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan<\/em>, Women’s Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany as an occasion to enjoy a bit of respite and celebrate together at the end of the holidays.<\/p>\n

Whether your domestic duties are many or few, Women\u2019s Christmas is a good time to pause and take a break from whatever has kept you busy in the past weeks or months. As the Christmas season ends, this is an occasion both to celebrate with friends and also to spend time in reflection before diving into the responsibilities of this new year.<\/p>\n

It has become a tradition for me to create a retreat that you can use for Women’s Christmas\u2014or any time you’re in need of a space of respite and regathering. This year’s retreat is titled “By Way of the Heart.” As I continue to make a life in the wake of my husband’s death, I have been astonished to learn how much our hearts can hold\u2014how they expand not only\u00a0to carry the sorrows that come to us but also the love and joy that still find us. Even as it alters us, this expansion makes it possible for us to engage our lives and the world more wholeheartedly. This year’s retreat offers an invitation for you to reflect on your own heart and the mysteries it holds.<\/p>\n

The retreat is very flexible, easily adaptable to your own purposes. You can do the retreat anytime you wish, by yourself or with friends near or far. It includes an introduction with some thoughts about how you might use these reflections.<\/p>\n

Clicking the link below will take you to a page on this Sanctuary of Women site where you can download the retreat as a PDF file. There is no cost; this is my Women’s Christmas gift to you! If you wish, you can make a donation in support of the retreat; contributions will be shared with the A21 Campaign (a21.org<\/a>), which is devoted to ending human trafficking and providing sanctuary, healing, and hope for those rescued from slavery.<\/p>\n

Download the 2019 Women’s Christmas Retreat<\/a><\/h3>\n

(If you don’t see the 2019 retreat when you click the link, just refresh your browser so that you’re seeing the most recent version of the Women’s Christmas page, and the new retreat should appear.) <\/em><\/p>\n

You are welcome to make copies of the retreat to share with friends. I would be delighted for you to offer this gift to others by sharing this blog post; you can use any of the social media icons at the bottom of this post or simply forward the link to others.<\/p>\n

This year’s retreat opens with a new blessing I’ve written for you, which you can find below. As we celebrate the day and enter into the year ahead, I pray that you will travel in the company of love. Merry Women’s Christmas!<\/p>\n

Constellation<\/strong>
\n A Blessing for Women\u2019s Christmas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Consider that the heart
\nholds its own constellation.<\/p>\n

Consider that it has
\na secret chamber
\nradiant with unspent light.<\/p>\n

Consider this when you cannot find
\nthat one star, that dream
\nthat compels you to the road.<\/p>\n

When every last thing seems
\nto have disappeared into dark,
\nconsider that you cannot always know
\nhow you bear this brightness
\nbut that it holds you
\nand is not wasted
\nor lost.<\/p>\n

See how we share this sky,
\nhow it stretches above us
\nbeyond every border,
\nhow every day
\nturns each of us
\nin steady revolution
\nthrough morning, night,
\nmorning again.<\/p>\n

Or think of it like this:
\nthat every heart is its own voyage,
\nsending its vessels out,
\ndrawing them back again,
\nnever by the same way they went
\nbut still somehow making for
\nhome, that place
\nthat shimmers now in welcome
\nwith all the gathered light
\nyou had thought
\nyou could not see.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jan Richardson<\/p>\n

[The image Wise Women Also Came<\/em> is \u00a9 Jan Richardson from Night Visions<\/em><\/a>. To use this image or order an art print, please visit this page<\/a> at Jan Richardson Images.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: Wise Women Also Came \u00a9 Jan Richardson Friends, it is almost Women’s Christmas! I want to share a gift I’ve created for you in celebration of the day. You might know that in some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is also celebrated as Women’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blessings","category-christmas","category-sacred-time"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p190Xv-ia","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1132,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions\/1132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}