Wellspring Days

In his book An Experience Named Spirit, John Shea tells his version of the story of the woman at well. He begins and ends the story with this line: »Let those who have ears to hear, hear this story. Let those who eyes to see, see this scene. Anything can happen at a well.«

Since, as John Shea so aptly phrases it, anything can happen at well, we gather for Wellspring Days. They are rich and multi-layered days of recollection, where we pause at the wellspring of his word and spend a day listening to the stories of God. Yet, we always do so as the People of God, who bring our own stories of blessing and curse, life and death with us. Thus, we learn and practice the art of listening for the stories of God within all things, within ourselves, within the others, within the whole of creation and within the breadth of Scripture, that we might hear and heed every story God wishes to tell us.   

By means of this life-giving, transformative encounter with the Word of God, we seek to tell God’s story through the words and deeds of our stories. Then strengthened by the encounter at the well, we return to our worlds imbued with the conviction that through the days and deeds of our lives, we continue to write His living Gospel.

»We are blessed: Why we should not eat breakfast on the edge of the apocalypse.«

Wellspring Days 2023

In a newspaper article, Wladimir Kaminer wrote: »The fear of the future is a widespread disease among Germans; according to a recent survey, only 19% are optimistic about the future. The others are eating breakfast on the edge of the apocalypse.«

What must we do if we would move from eating breakfast on the edge of the apocalypse to saying »we are blessed«? Years ago, John Shea said »Everyone's life is a series of blessings and curses, scars and kisses. You have a choice as to which tracks you are going to hold in your memory. When you hold a story long enough, it becomes a regular part of how you see things.« The very fearful and anxiety driven view of the world and our future is often described as being born of a sober and realistic pragmatism. In fact, it born of a failure of our imagination. As Henry Ward Beecher points out, »The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.« Therefore, we set out into this series with the indomitable hope of transforming the dark and foreboding way of looking at the world, into something more suffused with the imagination and light of God.

respectively from  10.00 – 16.00 h in the Hall of St. Marien, Vallendar / Led by: Rosemarie Monnerjahn and Erik Riechers SAC