Our Mission
A Journey in Faith
Grief to Grace is neither a kind of faith-healing nor a psychological fix. It is a journey inward, based on the belief that the only person who can really touch the depths of the human heart and heal those wounds which are beyond words, is the Holy Spirit of God. But grace builds on nature. By showing me the atttitudes and behaviours resulting from my abuse, the psychological and somatic elements in the programme help form a map and staging-posts on that journey towards the embrace of God and of others whom I can trust to support me. We trace the footsteps of Jesus suffering, crucified, risen and ascended, his wounds glorified. "By his wounds you have been healed." (I Pet.)
A Prayer for Healing
Lord, the wounds of childhood have suffocated the fullness of my natural generosity and the deepest human longings to be loved and to love. The abuses I have suffered have taught me great lies about the world, bold deceptions about my body, and the hardening of my tender heart.
Lord Jesus, melt the fear and armour that imprisons my heart. The painful legacy of sorrow and shame has turned me fearfully inward, isolating the most beautiful gifts that you have entrusted to me, concealing them from me and from others.
Lord, help me to appreciate the wealth of courage, wisdom and compassion that has been hidden away deep within my body and soul. Help me to open my heart and my history to you. GIve me the courage and trust to know that you embrace each and every moment of abuse that I have ever suffered.
You did not turn away and reject the Passion caused by sin in the world. You embraced your cross and carried it, knowing that what you suffered would end in redemption for the sins of the world. Because of your great love for me, you do not turn away in contempt, but you open your arms to me in comapssion; you look upon me with great care and tenderness.
Lord, help me to feel the balm of your grace, the balm that soothes the bleeding wounds of the past, the Divine Love that binds the broken heart. Amen.
A First Step
Please contact us in complete confidence for more details about our work. We understand that it can be difficult even to talk about what has happened and that you may still be a long way from deciding to come on one of our retreats.
"It takes two to speak the truth: One to speak and the other to hear." Henry David Thoreau