Awake Community Pauses to Breathe and Pray in Advent Mini-Retreat

This week, Awake hosted a peaceful Advent mini-retreat based on the work of writer, poet, and liturgist Cole Arthur Riley (pictured above), author of This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. A 48-minute-long recording of portions of this retreat—ideal for personal prayer and reflection—is available on Awake’s YouTube page.

Awake Executive Director Sara Larson opened the retreat by highlighting two “sacred paradoxes” of Advent: the interplays between darkness and light and between silence and voice, all of which play a role in this season and in our spiritual lives.

“Everyone who has been impacted by abuse in the Catholic Church—which includes all of us who are gathered here today—knows a bit about what it’s like to live in tension,” she said, “to seek light without ignoring the darkness, to discern when it’s time for reflective silence and when it’s time for speaking out.”

Cole Arthur Riley’s wisdom was an ideal focus for the gathering, Larson added, because she often explores seemingly incompatible notions simultaneously. “So much of what she writes seems applicable to the difficult realities that the Awake community faces,” Larson said. For instance, Riley notes that “Just as the darkness has the capacity to hide things, so does the light.” At the same time, the dark of night makes the beauty of starlight visible.

Riley graciously agreed to allow the Awake prayer team to use her words in the retreat. Her next book, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human will be released in January.

BREATH PRAYERS, REFLECTION, AND SHARING

Riley is known for writing simple and profound “breath prayers,” based on an ancient practice of connecting short memorable phrases with deep breathing. For one of the breath prayers used in the retreat, participants inhaled while speaking the words: “The world feels dim.” And then, on the exhale, they said: “But glory grows in the dark.”

During the retreat, the time for prayer and breathing alternated with periods for silent reflection and journaling. Participants then moved to small groups, guided by an Awake facilitator, to share any words and thoughts that resonated for them.

The retreat concluded with two scripture readings: the story of the Annunciation from the Gospel of Luke and the Canticle of Mary, also known as the Magnificat.