A Creative Writing Quiet Day

Photo of the grounds of St Benedict's Retreat Centre taken by me, Saturday 3 February 2024

Last Saturday, I was at St Benedict’s Retreat Centre in the charming Kent village of West Malling.

Bishop Gundulf founded St Mary’s Abbey in Malling in the year 1090. He also founded Rochester Cathedral – you can see his statue inside the Cathedral – and built several castles, including Rochester, Colchester and the White Tower of the Tower of London. The imposing Norman building on the far right in my photo is the west front of his ancient Abbey church. There are other beautiful buildings on site from the medieval, Tudor and Georgian eras. A small community of Anglican Benedictine nuns have been at Malling Abbey since 1916. The oasis of hospitality and sanctuary they offer is now known as St Benedict’s Retreat Centre, much used by the Diocese of Rochester and private retreatants. It is indeed a calm oasis of tranquillity and peace. Snowdrops and aconites were blooming already in the grounds last weekend, and the air was filled with silvery birdsong.

The minister leading the Quiet Day set us three creating writing exercises:

Firstly, to open our eyes and write, opening ourselves up to the beauty and peace of God’s creation. We were to sit somewhere quiet and use all our five senses to evoke what we were experiencing and feeling. What colours, movements, music, metaphors could we sense as time passed? What thoughts and feelings arose in us as we gave ourselves over to these sensations and allowed the words to flow? Where was God in this? Where were we? What was God saying to us as we wrote?

I chose to sit outside on a garden bench, gazing at a beautiful cherry tree with a thick trunk and knotted, ivy-covered branches, with an icy-white circle of delicate snowdrops at its base. Beyond was the ancient Norman church, a solid grey presence blending in with the grey oaks. I was surrounded by birdsong. The peace flowed into me, making me worship and write, which was also part of my worship.

Secondly, we were invited to rewrite Mary’s Magnificat – her song of praise in Luke 1: 46-55 – in our own words, without using ‘religious’ language like ‘magnify’, ‘bless’, or even ‘mercy’. This exercise inspired me not just to write Mary’s powerful song in everyday language, but also to wonder how Luke came to include this in his gospel. I imagined him chatting to this gentle, wise woman, the mother of the Messiah, now in her late middle age. She had been through so much in her life. Maybe she took his hand, held him in a searching gaze, and told him: ‘make sure you include my song in your account, Doctor.’

The third exercise was based on the principle that the Christian life should be about God increasing and us decreasing. We can experience renewal and refreshment as we learn to ‘distill our essence’. In this exercise, we were invited to consider our life journey and name the transformation we have known in knowing God. This involved describing our life’s journey in a six-word memoir, or six two-word lines. We are all inspired by different writing exercises and activities.

I found these three exercises, positioned at various points throughout the day, extremely helpful for unlocking my creativity. They inspired my imagination. I offer them here in case they inspire yours.

Be deeply blessed, as you write.

I’m an Anglican lay minister and also work full-time for the United Reformed Church as Administrator for their education and learning department. I wrote a devotional for the anthology Light for the Writer’s Soul, published by Media Associates International, and my short story ‘Magnificat’ appears in the ACW anthology Merry Christmas Everyone.