It’s good that you have chosen to be on this Retreat in Life. It’s important to notice that this is not a retreat from life. However we make a retreat, whether we visit a monastery or a retreat house or try and carve out some protected space in the midst of our normal routines, it is never, when taken seriously, a retreat from life. This is a Retreat in Life or even, we pray, into life. We are not escaping from life this week but rather trying to see life from a new perspective – from, dare we say it, God’s perspective. Brian Reeve reminded us recently at our staff meeting that, in one sense, we don’t have a "spiritual life" that is somehow kept in a box apart from the rest of what we perhaps unconsciously think of as "real life". Our life is one and in this week we are attempting to express that wholeness of life by stepping back from time to time to be consciously in God’s presence with the great desire that that consciousness of God may begin to suffuse all that we do and are.

I remember Gerard Hughes, the Jesuit spiritual writer speaking at Trinity Church here in Leek and saying that he thought the first task of the priest today was to teach his or her congregation about prayer. This kind of comment is one to send a shiver down the spine of any Christian minister, partly because we sense that he may be right and partly because most ministers are all too aware of the inadequacy of their own prayer life. At least, that is how I feel, I cannot speak for my colleagues. But, amongst the many regrets I have, not just about my ministry to date, but about my Christian life in general, is the frailty of my prayer life. The only thing to be said in my favour is God at least is prompting me to do something about it! It may be that you are in a similar position: somewhat anxious about whether your prayer life is up to much and yet longing or sensing that this is an area in your life that you would like to grow and deepen.

I want to say one or two things about this retreat, our hopes for the week and some practical details too.

There are several components to the week and the first thing to say is that none of these things is meant to be a burden. They are not in place to test you, trip you up or weigh you down but rather to open up what might be for you new possibilities.

At the heart of the week lies something that you do on your own, or at least, I should say, just between you and God. Can we find 30 minutes a day to read the Bible and to pray? You may have to divide this time up, some days you may not manage half an hour, it may be that your praying is done on the move whilst walking, for example, but this is our aim: to find time to be with God in prayer and with our Bibles open in front of us. We have called the whole week: Knowing Jesus Today. In the written word and in our prayer we expect to meet with Jesus. We have provided a series of readings taken from Philippians. We hope these will give you a starting point for reading the Bible during this week. We have also suggested one or two ways in which you can pray. Most of us, I guess realise that there is something more to the life of prayer than a long list to Santa of things we want. Prayer is a coming into the presence of God and spending time there with him, listening, thanking, adoring, confessing, yes, asking and crucially being silent and still. You might like to try some of the approaches in your pack but this is not all about techniques but about deliberately finding time to be present with God. The important thing is to find a way of praying that helps you enter into the presence of God.

Perhaps for some of you the scariest prospect of the week is the invitation to spend up to 45 minutes with another Christian reflecting together on your prayer life. This is not the Spanish Inquisition! It is intended to be encouraging and supportive and it is utterly confidential. We hope that in the conversation you can say where you are up to at the moment in your Christian life; what’s good, what’s a struggle and together you can perhaps sketch out some ways forward. The second meeting towards the end of the week will be a chance to "debrief". How has it gone? What worked? What didn’t? What might be your next step? So after this service there are some sign up sheets for 12 Spiritual Companions, a mix of clergy and lay people from different churches. Pick one and put your name and phone number against a time. Most of the Companions are willing to see you at their home or can travel. Perhaps you will have chance to arrange that with them before you go home this evening. The second meeting you can sort out with them when you meet for the first time. All the Spiritual Companions will themselves be meeting with a Companion. This is something we share together.

To help you too we have recommended a book to read, John Pritchard’s How to Pray. Not everyone is a great reader but the advantage of this book - apart from the fact that it is attractively and well written - is that you can read only part of it and benefit. It’s good to read the whole thing but even a dipping in will be rewarding. No one will be testing you on the contents! There is good practical advice and lots of ways into prayer too that you can try out in the future. Some of you have asked for the book to be ordered [and your copy is available in your envelope at the back].

This retreat is all about us developing or growing our life in God. Some of the business of this week is done just between you and God but we are never and, I would say, can never be Christians on our own. We owe it to each other to support one another in our prayer life. For this reason we are doing some things together with others. As well as the Spiritual Companions, we have two services of Night Prayer at the beginning and end of the week. On Thursday evening we gather at St Chad’s House for a shared meal (just bring along something sweet or savoury to share) and a chance to say, if we want to, how it’s going so far. Just to be absolutely clear: at no point will you be leapt upon and made to speak when you don’t want to or pray out loud if you are uncomfortable. All we share comes voluntarily. There are two quiet mornings on Friday and Saturday and the idea is that you choose to come to one or the other, not both. There will be some opening worship, a coffee break, and silent prayer and a suggestion for how you might use that time. You might like to bring a Bible with you, a notebook to jot down some thoughts or a copy of the book. Or you might just want to come empty handed and see what happens.

There is another sheet at the back of the church with the two quiet mornings on. It would help with the practicalities if you could place a tick against the one you want to come to. This is not a binding commitment, a tick will do so we have some idea of numbers over the two days.

I hope some of what I have said has made things a little clearer and not confused you utterly. There is one more thing. We could do a week on retreat and at the end of it all say, "That was nice" and go back to business as normal or we could try and keep up some of the praying, reading and sharing together into the future. So we want to encourage you to try and see how you go through Lent and there will be a final debrief session after Easter on Wednesday 21^st April at 7.30pm at St Edward's.

I hope that you feel a sense of excitement about this week. There will be trepidation too, no doubt but this is a great journey for us to be on and we are travelling it together as God’s people who want to know Jesus today and want to grow in faith.