Rhythms of Repair Workshop Recap for Women’s Spiritual Growth

Walking the Emmaus Road Together

This past Saturday, eighty women gathered for Rhythms of Repair – A New Year’s Workshop at the historic Ruth Williams Opera House in San Francisco. Each arrived with her own pace, questions, weariness, and longing. What united us was a shared desire: to learn how to slow down long enough to notice what God is healing, restoring, and re-forming within us.

This was not a conference. It was not a performance. It was a practice.

Why Repair?

The day was shaped by a simple truth we named early: repair is not about fixing ourselves, but about allowing Christ to walk with us long enough for our hearts to be warmed again.

Our time together was anchored by the narrative of Luke 24, the Emmaus Road where two disciples walk away from Jerusalem, away from disappointment, away from hope deferred. Jesus joins them unrecognized, listens to their grief, interprets Scripture in their presence, and reveals Himself not through spectacle, but in the breaking of bread.

We didn’t rush to resurrection. We stayed with the walk.

Listening to Music as Guided Prayer

Music became another teacher.  The invitation was extended to release performative worship and listen to lyrics as a sung prayer from the heart to God’s ear. For many women, this was where resistance softened. Without needing to explain or perform, they allowed themselves to be met, held, and gently led.

Communal Listening of Scripture

We moved next into the communal listening of Scripture, honoring the truth that recognition often happens together. I read Luke 24:13-35 slowly with instrumental worship in the background. The Word moved from something to be mastered into something to be received. Scripture became less about information and more about formation.

Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we listened for what the Word might be saying among us, not only to us as individuals. In the shared cadence of reading and silence, many women later named that something softened within them, circling or underling words and phrases that resonated in their hearts.

Imaginative Prayer

Through imaginative prayer, we entered the Emmaus story not as distant observers, but as participants. Women were invited to notice where they were standing in the scene, what they were feeling in their bodies, and how Jesus was positioning Himself beside them.

This practice created space for tenderness. For some, grief surfaced and was gently held. For others, clarity emerged where confusion had lingered. For many, there was a simple yet profound realization: Jesus had been walking with them longer than they had known how to name. 

Breath Prayer

We then slowed our bodies through breath prayer, anchoring our breathing to short, sacred phrases. In a culture shaped by urgency and over-functioning, this practice reminded us that repair often begins in the nervous system.

As breath steadied, as ruach rushed, as wind was welcome, as breath reminded us of the ease of walking along the road, shoulders softened and attention returned to the present moment. We breathed to re-enter life more whole, releasing the clenched jaw and tightness of holding breath for so long. We breathed in an out, allowing prayer to move through the body rather than remain only in the mind.

Journal Writing as Sacred Witness

Time was made for journal writing to allow the story to be told as it is presently known. We stalled here for a moment to name where we were and what we’ve noticed. Writing became a way to receive permission to tell the story most have not had the courage to tell. We wrote down our real grief named without shame and our truth without urgency to the one who drew near to draw us out of pain.

Nothing was forced. Everything was honored. The page simply held what emerged.

Breaking Bread as Sacred Fellowship

Our lunch break was not a break, but it was honored as a guided practice. We paused to acknowledge that it was by the breaking bread together when the disciples’ eyes were opened and Christ was recognized among them. We named this moment as sacred fellowship. Not rushed, not transactional, but relational. Community became tangible, reminding us that healing often unfolds in ordinary acts of presence and hospitality.

From Burning Hearts to Holy Return

Like the disciples, we did not remain on the road forever. Repair leads somewhere. The day did not end with answers neatly tied, but with our hearts warmed back to life.

We walked the Emmaus Road together, and many left sensing they were being sent back into their lives differently. More aware, more grounded, and more deeply accompanied.

What emerged over the course of the workshop was recognition and in intentional rejection of urgency. Many women named a renewed awareness of God’s nearness, a sense of grounding they had not realized was missing, and a relief that came from being held in a communal rhythm rather than carrying everything alone. 

For women who have long carried responsibility without space to rest and receive, this gathering offered restoration without demands.

Rhythms of Repair creates space for women to be formed slowly, attentively, and honestly. It is an invitation to rediscover a way of walking with God that sustains the soul, honors the body, and reminds us that transformation often happens while we are on the road together.

And this was only the beginning.

An Invitation to Go Deeper

For many women, the workshop felt like the first step, not the finish line.

That is why Rhythms of Repair continues as an overnight retreat experience, where the pace slows even further and the practices are held with greater spaciousness, silence, and rest.

The overnight retreat is an invitation to:

• Step away from urgency
  
• Dwell with God without performance
  
• Practice repair in body, soul, and spirit
  
• Return renewed and re-centered
  

If you sensed a longing while reading this, if your heart recognizes the need for a slower, deeper walk, then you are warmly invited to join us.

👉 Register to Join the Overnight Retreat in March HERE