Spirituality

“Decentering the self, making room for the Other of God through humility and obedience, entails the discipline of hospitality. It means making room in oneself for all who challenge us to move beyond the narrow confines of self-absorption, self-fixation, self-preoccupation. Through constant hospitality the monk is able to make room for the other: the other person, other people, and the Other who is God.”

This sums up the ethos and ministry of Holland House very well. Christian hospitality is about making room in our hearts for the other, the table always open and space made ready. In the context of this particular Christian house it means welcoming everyone of whatever faith, gender, sexuality, race or nationality, in the name of Christ, through his Spirit of gracious generosity and infinite love as witnessed by the Gospels and expressed in the writings of the Apostles.

Holland House also seeks to provide the space, time and ethos that will facilitate an authentic encounter with self, the other and the Divine – whether on retreat, at a business meeting with colleagues, walking in the gardens, or sitting in quiet prayer and meditation. “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matt 6.6)

The room is the chamber of the heart, and the ‘reward’ is simply the experience of knowing that through prayer, meditation or contemplation, the presence of God dwells deeply within you, so that you might know the truth of Jesus’s words “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17.21)

Holland House boldly states that it seeks to be “in harmony with creation”. Being in harmony with Creation means finding harmony with other faith traditions. Holland House seeks to encourage people from other traditions to use the House and to share their spiritual treasures with us. Each year, we hold three Interfaith days where people from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh faiths meet together to share elements of one another’s traditions. The Trustees of Holland House see this as an important and growing area of our ministry and work.

Being in harmony with Creation also means understanding our place as individuals, groups, and human beings in a creation filled with many other kinds of ‘beings’. To support this, we developed ‘Forty Ways To Live In Harmony’ by looking after our gardens organically, paying attention to habitat and encouraging insects, birds, mammals and reptiles to make our grounds their home. We carefully purchase food and ingredients, sourcing locally and sustainably whenever possible. We are founder members of the Sustainable Restaurant Association and our housekeeping team clean the House with eco-friendly products. These are also deeply important expressions of our spirituality.

Finding Your God – A Personal Retreat

This two day Individually Guided Retreat (IGR) provides space for us to be completely honest about our relationship with God (or any other name or term we might use). Even people of longstanding and dedicated faith can feel that they’ve never really found God, and that, after many years of belief, God remains a distant idea. Some find traditional images and concepts provide more problems than solutions and, although there’s a yearning to discover the truth, all roads seem to lead to dead-ends and frustration. Where to go?

Finding Your God

Is an opportunity to spend two days exploring what God (the Divine, the Absolute …) means to you. What is your experience of divinity, of love, or loss, or emptiness? Where is your suffering? Where is your joy? How does the Divine relate to your life as it’s experienced by you?

Finding your God is for anyone who wants to widen or deepen their exploration of the Divine, an opportunity to move from other people’s ideas of God to discovering God for ourselves.

Dates are by mutual arrangement.

The Warden of Holland House will be your companion on the journey. Do please contact her for further information and to arrange dates warden@hollandhouse.org

The View From The Hill Retreat

Need to step back for a while and take a view as to what has happened in your life, your faith, your health or work? If there’s one certainty in life, it’s that things change – including long-held beliefs, aspirations and desires. This has certainly been the experience of many people during the Covid pandemic which has either highlighted or exacerbated a variety of feelings affecting our sense of well-being and security.

The View From The Hill

Is for anyone who needs to step back from their life-situation and have some time to take stock, and perhaps deepen their experience of the presence of the Divine in their life.

It’s an individually guided retreat which lasts for three days, during which time we sit together on our (metaphorical) hilltop.

Day one involves asking “why have I come to this place?” and remembering the journey.

Day two is about laying the past and the future down, and learning to become very aware of the present moment, and what the implications are for our lives when we do that.

Day three involves preparing to leave the hill, returning to the life-situation from whence we came, but perhaps better prepared for encountering it afresh.

This retreat is conducted by the Warden of Holland House. She meets with the participant twice each day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon – to listen and to be a companion ‘on the hill’.