About Hidden Brook
Hidden Brook is a contemplative service using a rotation of different formats on the four or five Thursdays of each month. The first Thursday of each month incorporates prayer, chant, candlelight, silence, poetry, and music. Music from Taize is often woven through the service (see below for more about Taize), and each service is a unique creation. Each service has a theme which may be a person, historic event, or season.
The second Thursday of each month includes contemplation and discussion motivated by brief excerpts from the works of Thomas Merton.
The third Thursday of each month features centering prayer. A period of sharing and instruction precedes the centering prayer.
The fourth Thursday of each month is Compline or Evening Prayer.
The fifth Sunday of the month, when there is one, is Evensong.
Please plan to attend one or more of these Hidden Brook formats regularly. For an invitation to the Zoom Hidden Brook service, contact Steve Steadman at sgsteadman@gmail.com.
This Week at Hidden Brook
The next Hidden Brook service will be held via Zoom at 7 pm on Thursday May 9. This week's Hidden Brook service is entitled “The Day he was Taken up.” Through excerpts from Acts of the Apostles, the Gospel of John and other writings, we will consider the relationship of the Ascension of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit and ask what this might mean for us today. We will gaze on some local blossoming trees and gardens and enjoy ten minutes of silent meditation, and prayers and petitions for the state of the world. In conclusion, we will consider briefly three lives that seem especially touched by the Holy Spirit: Mary Magdalen, Queen Emma of Hawaii and Howard Thurman. Please do join us if you can! If you are new to Hidden Brook and would like an invitation to the Zoom Hidden Brook service, contact Steve Steadman sgsteadman@gmail.com.
Keep meditating! Keep praying!
Words ABOUT SILENCE:
For there are moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent.
Rainer Maria Rilke (Page-a-Day Zen Calendar, 2015)
Why Hidden Brook?
Our name "The Hidden Brook" resonates on several levels, both historic and spiritual. Literally, it describes the underground stream that runs down Russell Avenue and irrigated the celery farms that were on this land before the church was built. It was also the name of Good Shepherd's first nursery school. And now, for CGS's Thursday night community in the 21st century, it evokes the spiritual hidden brooks in all our lives -- sources of peace and refreshment that we can touch more deeply by spending time on our inner journeys -- individually, yet still together.
What is TAIZÉ?
Taizé services are characterized by quiet and candlelight, the repetition of melodious chants sung many times in many languages, a period of silence, and contemplative prayer. Let the songs sing themselves in you. Once you catch the tune, let yourself find the words -- in your heart or as you listen to your brothers and sisters as they sing. Let your spirit move along the path provided by rhythmic repetition, deeper and deeper into the stillness and beauty of God's presence.
AT ANY TIME DURING AN IN-PERSON HIDDEN BROOK SERVICE, FEEL FREE TO
Light a candle,
hold an object from the altar,
or move to any part of the church you prefer.