Introduction

0:00

Passacaglia

“Batter my heart, three-personed God.” Thus begins one of John Donne’s holy sonnets, an impassioned plea for intimacy with the Trinity.

This Lent we’ll be encountering God in and through our own holy longings, the yearnings that stir most deeply within us. Perhaps you’ve been taught to shy away from your innermost longings, to set them aside or let go of them - to carry on with the task at hand and not be distracted by desires that pull you in new directions.

But what we’ll experience during this retreat is a beautiful and profound truth of the spiritual life: that it is often in our deepest longings that we most intimately encounter the presence of God. We’ll consider our deepest desires as doorways, as invitations into intimate conversations with God. And we’ll listen intently to the longings not only of our hearts, but to the longings of God’s heart as well.

Each week we’ll spend time in Scripture, prayer, and dialogue with the Trinity - you’ll have time to speak, to reflect, and to listen for the gentle answers of God.

Lent is a time to lean into our longings, to hear in them the beckoning call of the God who sees us, knows us intimately, and calls us beloved. Come, this Lent, and listen to your longings. For it is your longings that will lead you home.