Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation describes the process of ‘forming’ or ‘shaping’ the life and character of the Christian disciple into Christlikeness. It is an intentional inner journey towards deepening faith and spiritual growth using spiritual disciplines as active participants with God, ‘until Christ is formed in us’.

A Place of Complete Surrender

An article by Trevor Miller On a recent visit to Roslin to see Brother John, my spiritual director, who along with the late Roland Walls, was a founding member of the Community of the Transfiguration, we talked about the significance of those spiritual influences that had shaped our formation and spirituality as respective Communities. One […]

Pray as you can, not as you can’t

An article by Trevor Miller One foundational aspect of prayer taught by the Church Fathers is so basic that it can easily become a case of ‘familiarity breeding contempt’. It is this: in seeking to understand prayer the spiritual masters were more interested in the state of the heart before God rather than the techniques […]

A Good Friday Communion Meditation – John 19:28-30

A Good Friday Communion Meditation by Trevor Miller I recall a story of how a group of Christian missionaries in India arranged to visit Mahatma Ghandi in order to discuss faith and the Way to God. Before they left Ghandi asked them to sing one of their Christian hymns. Which one, they said? He replied, […]

Wisdom to Live By – Matthew 12:43-45

A Quiet Day Reflection from Trevor Miller This obscure scripture passage is part of our Day 15 meditation in Celtic Daily Prayer – linked to Day 14 and Day 16 prayers for Holy Island – with its recognition of the reality of spiritual warfare. William Barclay called it a ‘compact and eerie little parable about […]

A Future and a Hope – Part 2

A transcript of a talk by Trevor Miller (continued from Part 1) So as this New Year continues to unfold, let’s resolve to seek God but to do so fully aware 1] That we don’t know the future but God knows Imagine God planning for our future! He desires us to have hope – a […]

A Future and a Hope – Part 1

A transcript of a talk by Trevor Miller   I’ll start with some good news – it’s only 330 days to Christmas. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it that another year has passed. However, as we’re still less than a month into the New Year; we are still in that time frame when we think […]

On finding a Spiritual Director

A reflection by Trevor Miller I recall during a visit to Ireland reading in the vestibule of the Franciscan Church in Killarney, a simple definition of spiritual direction. It was the notice said, ‘not about giving answers. It was about helping each other to hear the voice of God in life’s experience and to discover […]

The discipline of knowing your limitations

A Reflection by Trevor Miller. One of my all-time favourite children’s books when our kids were little had a great title, ‘Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day’. We’ve all had them, when the ‘never rains but it pours’ syndrome brings back-to-back disappointments. Here is an excerpt: ‘I went to sleep with […]

Learning Grace by Living Nakedly

Irene Alexander, a Companion in Community from Brisbane, reflects on the essential role of Grace in the struggle to find the true self:   Once you accept the existence of God – however you define Him, however you explain your relationship with Him – then you are caught forever with His presence in the centre of all […]

Joining the Suffering God

Charles Ringma, a Companion in Community from Brisbane, shares his thinking and experiences of suffering. Joining the Suffering God    If ever there was a topic that is common to all humanity, it is the theme of suffering. We have all suffered and continue to suffer in various ways. Suffering is part of the human […]