If you serve a parish, a congregation or a retreat house, everything here is yours to use, free. Your bulletin, your newsletter, your website, your small groups, your retreatants and parish members on the Monday after they go home.

The same goes for prayer groups, Bible studies, centering prayer groups, spiritual directors, chaplains, Secular Franciscan fraternities, and anyone who gathers people to pray.

Sacred Noticing grows out of the Franciscan and wider Christian contemplative tradition, and it is offered to anyone, whatever church they call home.

Ready to paste · For your bulletin or newsletter · For your website · For groups · For retreat houses · Write to me

Ready to paste

A short notice for a bulletin, newsletter or parish website. Use it as it is or change it to suit you.

Take a Spiritual Break. Each day, Daily Prayers and Meditations offers the Scripture readings along with a short reflection, a prayer and something to carry into the day. All of it is free, written by Dr. Michael J. Cunningham OFS, Director of San Damiano Retreat in Danville. Read online at prayersandmeditations.com, or have the daily readings sent by email. For a reflection that meets you where you are, visit spiritualbreak.com.

For your bulletin or newsletter

Any reflection from A Spiritual Break may be reprinted in a bulletin, newsletter or prayer-group mailing, free of charge. Keep it whole, include the credit line, and don’t sell it. The full terms are short: Sharing These Reflections.

For your website

Daily Prayers and Meditations carries the Scripture readings for each day, and on many days a Spiritual Break drawn from them: a reflection to notice with, a prayer or poem to pause with, and something to carry into the day. If your website has a “Daily Readings” link, you are welcome to point it here.

The readings follow the Catholic lectionary. Churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary will often find the Sunday readings the same or close to their own, and the reflections themselves are written for anyone.

Take a Spiritual Break is another simple link to offer. A visitor names what they are carrying, in a word or a sentence, and three pieces from these writings are set before them, one at a time. Nothing is written for them on the spot, and nothing they type is kept.

For groups of every kind

The daily readings, with their Spiritual Break, also make a ready starting point for any group that breaks open the Sunday Scriptures together. Guides for leaders, a white paper for pastors and spiritual directors, and more are on the Resources page.

For retreat houses

Every retreat house knows the question that comes on the last morning: what do I do when I get home? These are free to hand to your retreatants as they leave:

I direct San Damiano Retreat, a Franciscan retreat center in Danville, California, so I write as a colleague. If something here would serve your retreatants, I would be glad to talk about how.

Write to me

I lead day retreats, evenings of reflection and talks for parishes, congregations and groups, and weekend retreats at San Damiano. To ask about any of these, or about using something here in a way not covered above, write to mcunningham@spiritualbreak.com or call San Damiano at 925-837-9141.

If your parish or retreat house has a website, a link to spiritualbreak.com helps others find these resources too. And if you do use any of this, I would love to hear where it travels.

Peace and all good,
Michael J. Cunningham OFS