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Resources during
​Coronavirus or Covid-19

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Below are a growing collection of resources to support and ground you during Covid-19, from prayers and poems to on line meditation groups or guidelines for at home retreats

​These include:
  • A prayer for the fearful
  • A blessing for the journey through lockdown
  • A lovely video, Beatitudes for a Global Pandemic, by Cartoon Church
  • An open letter from Richard Rohr, written on 19th September, 2020, with wisdom as those within and beyond the USA enter the Autumn
  • Guidelines for a retreat at home
  • Tips on dealing with conflict when everyone's at home all day
  • A link to 'Covid-19: Psychological First Aid' 90 minute on line training
  • A helpful text with tips on finding inner peace in traumatic times
  • ​A link to the on line 'Meditation Chapel' 
  • Information about Silence Space on Zoom, Mondays at 1pm
  • A link to on line retreats, talks and lectures about silence: many free
  • A link to the Centre for Action and Contemplation's 20 videos on what we can learn spiritually from and through Covid-19 
  • A link to a video discussion on meditating in cyberspace, with Sarah Bachelard and Glenn Welby
  • A growing collection of poems about or that relate to these Covid-19 times, added to each Monday. Scroll to this page's end for the full list.
For this week's poem, 'A January Prayer', by Carla Grosch-Miller, click here

'A prayer for the fearful',
written by Graham Turner, ​as we face Covid-19 together.
Click here to read the prayer and to download the file

'Blessing for the Journey through lockdown',
​written by Jan Berry, as we spend time staying at home.
Click here to read the blessing and to download the file

Beatitudes for a Global Pandemic 
Based on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5,
text by Jayne Manfreid, cartoons by Dave Walker 

(and you can use the video for free in your streamed services or churches!)
Click here to go to the video on YouTube

Are you unsure how to stay rooted in God in these uncertain times?

Reflect on the wisdom contained in this open letter by Richard Rohr

Click here to read Richard's open letter, written on 19th September, 2020

Has your retreat been cancelled?
Or perhaps this is the first time you've had space for
​one in life but now find all the retreat centres are closed?

Plan a retreat at home with these simple guidelines

Click here for printable 'Plan a retreat at-home' guidelines

Are you feeling pressure or trauma from all the sad news that is being carried in the media and on social media about Coronavirus and other traumatic events surrounding 'Black Lives Matter'?

Read a helpful text on finding and being peacemakers by Br Nicolas Bartoli

Click here for a discussion on inner peace and action points towards this

Would on line 'Covid-19:Psychological First Aid' training be useful?

Try out Public Health England's new 90 minute training at the link below

Click here to go to the link for Covid-19: Psychological First Aid

Is far more time than usual at home with family
​leading to tension and conflict?

Try out these 6 top tips on dealing with conflict in turbulent times

Click here for Six Top Tips on dealing with conflict in turbulent times - from the Rose Castle Foundation

Are you missing your usual opportunities to meet with
​others face-to-face for silence and meditation?

Meditate with others in the on line Meditation Chapel.

Click here for the on line Meditation Chapel

Or join us for Silence Space on Zoom each Monday  from 1pm-1.45pm

Click here to email to request the Silence Space Zoom link

On the EVENTS page you will find links to a wide variety of
​live web events, podcasts about silence and recordings of talks about silence-based prayer to encourage you.

Watch and listen to well-known teachers of silence and meditation.

Click for podcasts, web events and conference teaching about silence and meditation

The Centre for Action and Contemplation's 20 video talks
from key teachers, Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault,
​Barbara Holmes, James Finlay and Brian McLaren

Watch them speaking on what this time of Coronavirus has to teach us.

Click here to go to all of their talks, ranging from 1 to 10 minutes in length

Are you joining with others to meditate on line and have questions, reflections or wonderings about this as a spiritual practice?

You may find this video-discussion, Contemplation and/in Cyberspace helpful:

Click here for a link to this video discussion

​Since the start of Covid-19, Seeds of Silence has been sending out a poem each week to those on the contact list.
Below you will find buttons to take you to these, with the most recently sent at the top. There are both brand ​new poems written as Covid-19 emerged and older poems that speak to these times.  
Click here for Carla Grosch-Miller's prayer-poem, 'A January Prayer', inviting us to remember the simple but rich pleasures that God blesses and sustains us with in these long, dark months
Click here for Nicola Slee's 'The Slaughter of the Innocents', and children still terrorised today
Click here for Joyce Rupp's 'Winter's Cloak', reframing darkness as rest from what dazzles us
Click here for 'Nativitie' by John Donne, inviting reflection on the room in our hearts for Christ
​Click here for U.A. Fanthorpe's 'BC:AD', inviting us to ponder again the mystery of Christ's birth
Click here for Kabir's 'Breath', (15th cnetury) inviting us to reconsider where God is found
Click here for Jane Kenyon's 'The Bat', inviting us to reflect on the illusive Holy Spirit and Mary
Click here for Kerry Hardie's 'Autumn's Fall', inviting us to ponder the inevitability of death
Click here for Rowan Williams' 'Advent Calendar', inviting reflection on Christ's coming amongst us
Click here for Elizabeth Jennings' 'November Sonnet', inviting engagement with 'right doubt'
Click here for Paul Booth's 'Drawing In', inviting us to ponder the evening of our lives
Click here for Edith Joy Scovell's 'Deaths of Flowers', inviting reflection on death and life
Click here for Jane Hirshfield's 'Three times my life has opened', inviting reflection on letting go
Click here for David Tait's 'Candles', inviting us to remember Covid-19's global  toll on lives
Click here for R S Thomas' poem, 'I think that maybe', about our small steps towards God
Click here fro Raine Maria Rilke's 'God speaks to each of us', inviting us to embrace life
Click here for 'A mid-Covid Reflection': amalgamated parts of poems used June-October
Click here for Pesha Joyce Gertler's 'The Healing Time', inviting us to journey with pain and grief
Click here for Kae Tempest's 'People's Faces', and Imogen McBeath's dance solo, Memory Of A Body​
Click here for Arlene Arshack's 'Tangled Times', inviting us to imagine how the world could be
Click here for D. H. Lawrence's 'Pax', reminding us that all that matters is knowing peace with God
Click here for Zaffar Kunial's 'The Word, with its invitation to reflect on the gift of life
Click here for Denise Levertov's 'Primary Wonder' - the mystery of life sustained by divine love
Click here for Mary Oliver's 'The Summer Day' with a striking 'Question' that Miles responds to
Click here for Rosie Miles' poem, 'Question': a response to Mary Oliver's  'The Summer Day'
Click here for Esther Morgan's 'Epiphany', with its reminder that each moment is a gift from God
Click here for Martha Postlethwaite's 'Clearing', inviting us to make space and to ​wait patiently
Click here for Malcolm Guite's 'Exaltabo te, Domine' - I will magnify Thee, O Lord (Psalm 30)
Click here for 'Summer storm' by George Szirtes, calling us to reflect on what normality really is
Click here for 'Almost' by Adrian Salmon, with advice on ​what to do when we almost give up
Click here for 'A gate inside the wind' by Linda Rose Parkes: a reminder to be ​open to new things
Click here for 'A Reflection': amalgamated small sections of the poems used, March-June 2020
Click here for 'Harbour' by Grace Nichols, with an ending that echoes the ​heartfelt cry of many
Click here for Miles Salter's prose-poem, 'That Spring', that reflect on the Covid-19 months
Click here for Carla Grosch-Miller's 'There is a time', which resonates with recent global events
Click here for the wisdom for our new lives in Nicola Slee's 'Prayer for the waiting time'
Click here for 'Blessing in the Chaos' by Jan Richardson, which invites us to​ let go
Click here for Carrie Etter's 'How to approach a pandemic', and link to poem it's written 'after'
Click here for Jan Berry's 'Behind Locked Doors: Peace be with you' inspired by Jesus and disciples
Click here for Paul Booth's 'Creative distancing', challenging the language of 'social distancing'
Click here for Malcolm Guite's 'Easter 2020' about this year's strange Easter Day
Click here for Christine Crabtree's 'If you fall down', encouraging us to rest during Covid-19
Click here fro Laura Sutcliffe's 'In this moment' about animals reclaiming the space we've left
Click here for Rebecca Elson's 'Antidotes to Fear of Death', referencing Hopkins' 'God's Grandeur'
Click here for 'God's Grandeur' by Gerard Manley Hopkins, reflecting the last line of Elson's poem
Click here for 'Pandemic', a new poem about our heartfelt response to Covid-19 by Lyn Unger
Click here for 'When this is over' - a poem about Covid-19's impact by Laura Fannuci
Click here for a light-hearted poem,  'Tae a Virus' (apologies to Robbie Burns),  by a virologist
Click here for 'Lockdown' by Br Richard Herrick, about this latest phase in the Covid-19 situation
Click here for a poem by Wendell Berry,​'The Peace of Wild Things'
  • HOME
  • Covid Resources
  • On line & live EVENTS
  • RESOURCES
  • ABOUT
  • SILENCE
    • Quotes about silence
  • Spiritual Accompaniment
  • CONTACT
    • Donate
  • WHO?
  • WORKSHOPS
  • WRITINGS
  • BLOGS & Podcasts