About Hidden Brook

Hidden Brook is a contemplative service using a rotation of different formats on the four or five Thursdays of each month. The first Thursday of each month incorporates prayer, chant, candlelight, silence, poetry, and music. Music from Taize is often woven through the service (see below for more about Taize), and each service is a unique creation. Each service has a theme which may be a person, historic event, or season.

The second Thursday of each month includes contemplation and discussion motivated by brief excerpts from the works of Thomas Merton.

The third Thursday of each month features centering prayer. A period of sharing and instruction precedes the centering prayer.

The fourth Thursday of each month is Compline or Evening Prayer.

The fifth Sunday of the month, when there is one, is Evensong.

Please plan to attend one or more of these Hidden Brook formats regularly. For an invitation to the Zoom Hidden Brook service, contact Steve Steadman at sgsteadman@gmail.com.


This Week at Hidden Brook

There will be no Hidden Brook service on Maundy Thursday March 28. Our next Hidden Brook service will be held via Zoom at 7 pm on Thursday April 4. If you are new to Hidden Brook and would like an invitation to the Zoom Hidden Brook service, contact Steve Steadman sgsteadman@gmail.com.

Keep meditating! Keep praying!

Words ABOUT SILENCE:

The quiet of the woods
is not your regular quiet,
not empty-room quiet,

but a full quiet, still to the brim,
quiet held in soil grown over ages,
filtered by leaves and feathers,

a quiet fermented by eons of rain,
the quiet of birdcall and snowfall
and snowmelt and sun,

a stillness shielded by trees
even whose young ones
are older and wiser than we,

whose roots silently ponder
what is below, and know
without saying,

a quiet held in the owl's gaze,
who sees your quietness
which flourishes within you

hugely, agelessly,
growing in you
as silently as a mushroom.

--Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes    www.unfoldinglight.net


Why Hidden Brook?

Our name "The Hidden Brook" resonates on several levels, both historic and spiritual. Literally, it describes the underground stream that runs down Russell Avenue and irrigated the celery farms that were on this land before the church was built. It was also the name of Good Shepherd's first nursery school. And now, for CGS's Thursday night community in the 21st century, it evokes the spiritual hidden brooks in all our lives -- sources of peace and refreshment that we can touch more deeply by spending time on our inner journeys -- individually, yet still together.


What is TAIZÉ?

Taizé services are characterized by quiet and candlelight, the repetition of melodious chants sung many times in many languages, a period of silence, and contemplative prayer. Let the songs sing themselves in you. Once you catch the tune, let yourself find the words -- in your heart or as you listen to your brothers and  sisters as they sing. Let your spirit move along  the path provided by rhythmic repetition, deeper and deeper into the stillness  and beauty of God's presence.

AT ANY TIME DURING AN IN-PERSON HIDDEN BROOK SERVICE, FEEL FREE TO

  • Light a candle,

  • hold an object from the altar,

  • or move to any part of the church you prefer.