Dancing at the Still Point: Retreat Practices for a Busy Life

by Gemma Simmonds

Publisher:

Form

, 2021

Overview

Retreats give us a space for contemplation and developing our relationship with God, but they aren't always possible. So can we still appreciate and detect the everyday God, even without special 'holy' places and spiritual practices?

Dancing at the Still Point is a book for those who can't or aren't ready to go away for a residential Christian retreat, but who want to be in daily relationship and connect with God in a satisfying way.

In sessions that you can work through at your own pace, Gemma Simmonds guides us through the practices and disciplines of retreats, such as being still physically and spiritually, developing a habit of prayer and learning some basic discernment skills. With insights from the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, she explores how we can fold these practices into every day and shows that a rich life of prayer, in which we have time and space to let God be present, is achievable even in a busy working or family life.

Practical and flexible, Dancing at the Still Point will help you find a richer and more balanced life, where the spiritual takes its rightful place amid all the other calls on time and attention.

Contents

1 Fantastic retreats and how to find them 1
2 Making room 14
3 An 'inside the body' experience 30
4 The examined life 47
5 Becoming a slow reader 61
6 A picture is worth a thousand words 72
7 Choose life 83

Product Details

• Title: Dancing at the Still Point: Retreat Practices for a Busy Life
• Author: Gemma Simmonds
• Publisher: Form
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 128
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780281084722, 9780281084715, 0281084718, 0281084726
• Resource ID: LLS:9780281084722
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T22:46:09Z

About Gemma Simmonds

Dr. Gemma Simmonds is Senior Lecturer in Pastoral and Social Studies and Theology at Heythrop College, University of London, where she teaches Ignatian spirituality. A sister of the Congregation of Jesus, she has worked in teaching and in university and prison chaplaincy and done missionary work among women and street children in Brazil. She has been a spiritual director and retreat-giver since the 1990s and is a renowned international speaker and a regular broadcaster on religious programs.