Aim
To encourage a greater awareness of the wonder of life. 

Focal Point 
Simple things that engage all five senses. 

Leader's Introduction 
Offer a brief reminder that we live in a world that tends to be dominated by conflict, violence and unbelievable suffering, a world of abuse, discrimination and poverty, a world in which we can feel extremely vulnerable. At the same time, we do live in a world of wonder. To quote G K Chesterton: 

At the back of our brains, so to speak, there is a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.

Julian of Norwich, speaking from another century, writes:

... show me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, in the palm of my hand ... all things have their being through the love of God. In this little thing I saw three truths. The first is that God made it, The second is that God loves it. The third is that God looks after it. That is why it matters to notice such things; and to wonder at them.

And finally, Evelyn Underhill, another English mystic, writes: 

For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.

Drinking in gifts of God-given wonder
The leader can select from the following material. 

• Invite people, in a period of quiet, to listen to these words and reflect on them:" 
  
  "What have you got that was not given to you?" (1 Corinthians 4.7) 
  
  Without trying too hard, allow the words to draw you to the giftedness of your life and living, letting whatever emerges become your prayer of gratitude. 

• Invite people into an imaginative contemplation on "miracles of the ordinary", to engage all the senses: seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, hearing. After a stilling down exercise, perhaps a piece of gentle music, offer the sentences leaving plenty of space between each to enable people to connect. Imagine: 
  
  -- A single flower, a daisy or buttercup. 
  -- A child taking a first tentative step. 
  -- Hearing the fluttering wings of a moth, or the distant song of a
     skylark. 
  -- The smell of freshly baked bread, the fragrance of a rose, a slice
     of orange.
  -- Listening to the sound of the sea gently lapping onto your
     favourite beach.
  -- Touching your own hands, a blade of grass, or feeling wet sand
      between your toes. 
  -- The taste of a favourite quenching drink on a hot day. 
  -- A single snowflake falling. 
  -- A spider's web. 
  -- Feeling the wind blowing through your hair or onto your face. 
  -- The colour of a ripe tomato, taste it. 
  -- Hearing the sound of a flute or a cello. 
  -- Feeling the texture of the bark of a tree. 
  -- An artist's palette. 
  -- The whisper of a loved one's voice. 
  -- The moon in a cloudless night sky. 
  -- Lichen on a stone wall. 
  -- Sitting beside a bubbling stream on a hillside, trailing a hand in
     the water.

• Invite people to make a silent prayer of thanksgiving for these "miracles of the ordinary". Then bring them out of the imaginative contemplation gently, and back into the group setting.

• Then go into sharing as a listening, not a discussion group, without comment.

• Invite people "to feel a poem coming on" and to have the courage to write it, putting aside the internal or external whispers that say, "You can't do it, you're not a poet." Let the artist out. Doodle or draw something.

• Follow on with a sharing of contributions without the need to apologise, met by group applause and encouragement, but without comment on the content.

• Invite people, in a period of quiet, to reflect on this question: "Who taught you to see wonder and beauty in the world?" Bring the individual to heart and mind. Revisit situations, places, and occasions, recollecting the gifts of wonder and beauty, and in stillness thank God for them.

• Ask yourself to whom you will pass on the wonder and beauty of God's world and so enable another to delight in God? 

• Invite people to dare to stop during the busyness and ordinariness of the next few days to embrace a contemplative moment; to observe the wonder around you, perhaps in nature, the face of a child or adult, a word in a conversation, an image from the media, a piece of music, whatever. Stay lightly with the moment. Stay silent and let it speak to you of something of God. 

Prayer Exercise
Use this prayer as a blessing: 

God of wonder, 
God of beauty, bless 
Our eyes for seeing,
Our hands for touching, 
Our ears for hearing,
Our noses for smelling,
Our mouths for tasting.
Set our hearts and minds
On fire with your love and gentleness
As we go out in the name of God
Celebrating our senses. 

Worth Pondering
"If the only prayer we say in our lifetime is 'Thank you', that will suffice." (Meister Eckhart)

"Whoever is devoid of the capacity to wonder, whoever cannot contemplate or know the deep shudder of the soul in enchantment, might just as well be dead for he has already closed his eyes upon life." (Albert Einstein)

"The Celtic approach to God opens up a world in which nothing is too common to be exalted, and nothing is so exalted that it cannot be made common." (Esther de Waal) 

Other Resources for Further Ideas and Follow-up
Michael Mayne, This Sunrise of Wonder (Fount)

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