Wrestling With God

Sermon preached by the Reverend Dr. Robert Willis, the recently retired Dean of Canterbury Cathedral in England, Sunday, October 16, 2022

[@lindalapham42]

Bless you Dean Robert. We need our garden congregation again.

[@stablefairy9437]

what an inspiring sermon.

[@kas6621]

Oh this was a blessing to see and hear Dean Robert teach again!!

[@rosetree01]

Had a yearning for a message from Dean Robert this morning and there he was! Thank you!

[@GratefuleeGoldalee]

🏡Many blessings! Thank you for this lovely and encouraging sermon! 🧡

[@user-nx6ji9tk8i]

I am so glad I ‘found’ Dean Robert. He is such a blessing. What a message.

[@crystalclear6864]

A great message and poetry! So lacking in churches to show our walk and stumbles with God in a beautiful way

[@Forbesdale]

How wonderful to find Robert Willis again. I have missed the garden morning prayer so much. Praise God.

[@098anne]

Me too

[@mirarim]

mee too

[@cheleenmahar2506]

So Grateful I found this. Grateful to Dean Robert . blessings and love.

[@feliciarichards4862]

I am so glad to hear Rev Dean Robert speaking again. He is a blessing.

[@maryfilippou6667]

I am so grateful to find you well Rev. Willis and in our country as a great addition. What a joy to hear your sermon again. How we from the Garden Congregation those full 2 years, 2 months, have missed your Readings and so glad you are in good health, as ever!

[@chrishall62]

Excellent sermon, so good to hear Dean Robert again. He is greatly missed here in Canterbury

[@annesfeltedfriends]

So happy to see and hear Dean Willis again. As part of the garden congregation, I do miss that wonderful morning prayer with the Dean.

[@janemilligan3195]

I agree 100% and so glad to hear that 'normal service' will be resumed, well once weekly in 2023

[@sonifranc3551]

Dear Dean Robert !!!! How lovely to listen to your voice, again .God bless 🙏🙏🙏.

[@elainekeech5292]

Thank you, l miss seeing you every day in the garden with your animals sending love and prayers 🙏 ❤ xxx

[@michellezoppa4132]

So happy to have found Reverend Dr. Robert Willis again. I dearly miss morning prayer from Canterbury Cathedral with Dean Robert. Thank you for making my day brighter.

[@Catherine-2008]

I miss you Reverend Robert! It is so nice to see you!

[@elizabethmunson7379]

The Garden Congregation lives on my home every morning; I breakfast with his sermons. I have begun in 2020 and am going through day by day. I am treated to hope and joy at the sight of all the animals. A true blessing this man is and what a relief to see that he now continues to get to share himself in person. How amazing to see this. Keep traveling!!!!!!

[@petulaashby901]

I really miss that voice on mornings. You have been a blessing Dean Robert. All the way from Barbados

[@aghost1410]

I LOVE DEAN ROBERT WILLIS SO MUCH I'M SO GLAD TO SEE THIS

[@pamcowie2982]

Wonderful to hear the calm and comforting voice of Dean Robert again. To learn about the scriptures and their meaning to us. Oh how I miss those daily messages. Hope and peace and love to you and Fletcher. Pam from Oeaslake

[@lucy8950]

Amen. As part of the garden congregation I see the faith around the world in the sharing of prayer,scripture, and reflection. Glad to see and hear Rev. Willis in our country. have a blessed visit. May we all persist.

[@RhodaBarreto-gz8dk]

Oh how we've missed you Dean Robert, so wonderful to hear your voice again. Thanks to St Bart's for sharing. Love here from SA.

[@Morningglory7513]

Echoing the joy in finding Robert Willis again. The Word shared in the gardens at the Cathedral. The history woven so effectively into the garden sermons. Praise Be To God.

[@Fabwrite]

Wonderful sermon on ‘Wrestling with God’ - it was a delight to see and hear Dean Robert once again. Thank you St. Bart’s 😊

[@betht60]

A huge thank you to St. Bart's for this recording of Dean Robert this October day in 2022. I am a Marylander, and was a member of the Garden Congregation with so many others around the world, for Dean Robert's Morning Prayer. I am currently watching his October, 2020 recordings as he takes us through Acts. What a masterful teacher of the Word! My home congregation is that of Christ Church, Chaptico. Again, thank you for the blessing of hearing Dean Robert speak, and may God Bless your Ministry there in New York.

[@adriennebeecker5000]

So blessed to hear and see Rev.Dr.Robert Willis. His words in this homily are like a river of fresh water. Happy to know, too, that you are both travelling. Thanks so much.

[@carolpringle2103]

It's made my day seeing and hearing your sermon just now Dean Robert ❣ It's good to know that you are still spreading the word and it would be even better if we knew when to tune in again as you travel around with Fletcher. You are both sorely missed, as I am sure you know, by us all in the garden congregation. Every Blessing Carol Pringle 🙏

[@hannakunz9220]

Thankyou to Rev Dr.Robert Willis for the encouragement to keep on wrestling with God. It was a great joy listening you as I do miss your morning prayers. May God bless you!

[@annesearson637]

Thank you to Dean Robert, so good to hear you again. You always help me to understand the passages. I too am catching up on the morning prayers that I missed before I joined the Garden Congregation. Blessings from Anne in Sydney, Australia.

[@nicolewatts5109]

What a blessing to come across this inspirational sermon and hear Dean Robert once again. Nicole -Garden Congregation

[@claudiabannister6414]

what a wonderful surprise to have happened upon this! ~💜💜💜~

[@pennywade5063]

A lovely bonus for those of us in the former Garden Congregation! Very glad Tiger is still doing well; he is a force to be reckoned with! Tiger by name and tiger by nature!

[@revpetermcarey]

Wonderful!

[@gwenfix2200]

Thank You St Bart for sharing.

[@emiliayonekokumata4764]

Reverend Dr. Willis words are always so meaningful and gives me strength to face the next challenges and keep on going. Thank you so much. God bless you!

[@ruthgoebel723]

It is such a blessing to hear Dean Robert again. I have profited much from morning prayer as part of the Garden Congregation. I do miss it so, but I still watch those from the early days when to he GC first began.

[@alisonbrown7701]

Thanks Be to God, An irreplaceable asset to the way, and building in one’s faith.

[@herserenehighnessm]

It is so good to hear Dean Robert again … This makes my day.

[@annharrington6778]

How wonderful, Dean Robert is back. Brilliant as ever. How I miss His Morning Prayer. in the garden. Gods Blessings for years & years of Ministry. Grateful Thanks for Morning Prayer which sustained my friends & I during the lockdown..

[@robynwozab5745]

Fantastic to hear Dean Robert, of they would doa weekly sermon I would feel so much better, I've missed Morning Prayer so much.They have a special ministry, can't wait for it to begin again even if once a week. ,please Lord

[@marciafisk9323]

What a surprise of joy to hear the Rev Robert Willis again! I have the habit of starting all over again and listening to his garden messages corresponding with the day in 2020. This led me to the above message today. My heart is full of praise and joy feeling well fed today! TY Lord and TY “Dean Robert”. I have wondered over and over where you both are and where God is leading you. Would love some updates on the dear animals at the deanery and the cats, too.

[@janemilligan3195]

I'm going online every day and watching the garden congregation service on the current date 2 years ago

[@megah5028]

Oh, I wish I had known Dean Robert was in NY. How I have missed him! Mornings are just not the same without the Garden Congregation. Thank you, St. Bart’s 🙏🏻❤️

[@judyedwards7597]

and here in New Haven too! Dean Robert and Fletcher have been such a blessing to me.

[@colinraymond632]

Thank you Reverend Dr.Robert Willis for being able to listen to you again.

[@Gracejh333]

Same as many others, I miss those morning prayers delivered by Dean Robert so much, they helped me a lot in the past few years.

[@robynjaulmann9492]

Thank you Dean Robert for a great reminder of what I have missed of late! 🙏We miss your Morning Prayer in the Garden ! Wonderful May our Great God be with you and Fletcher, in “your retirement from Dean”.❤️❤️❤️🇦🇺

[@luisalbertocruz-soublette4440]

What a wonderful surprise to see and listen to Dean Robert once again! I miss him so much!! Much love ❤ to him and Fletcher! When shall we meet them again?... I am awaiting as a member of the Garden congregation...

[@karenlane1686]

Wonderful to hear Dean Robert again. I was a follower of his morning prayers from Canterbury Cathedral. I miss hearing him every day.

[@davidthompson9712]

Oh how I miss the Dean, his cats, his birds, Clemmie and Winnie and of course Fletcher. I am so lost. Bless you both. Rita Thompson.

[@marilynwoolford-chandler1161]

How wonderful to hear you again. Perseverance. Reach out and receive God's gift. As a Methodist/Quaker your quoting his words And providing the Scottish folk song that works so well with it means a huge amount. Bless you

[@annbennett8463]

A beautiful sermon. Thank you Dean Robert. So glad I came upon this site to see and hear you again. I/ we miss you and reiterate all that Christine said. This comes from Beckenham in Kent.

[@johnwebb5359]

Wonderful to have found you. I hope the autobiography is progressing well. God keep you safe

[@JancisHarvey]

How wonderful to see and hear you again.

[@robynjaulmann9492]

Since you left the broadcasts we in Australia, the whole of the East Coast has had floods that are devastating and leaving hundreds homeless ,church’s damaged and we all feel very fragile by the destruction of the continued flooding of the long river system involved trying to contain the massive rains. 🙏🕯💕🛐✝️🕯

[@Patricia-wf3qf]

As happened so frequently with the Dean's sermons and reflections for me as a Garden Congregant, this sermon on "perseverance" seemed spoken straight to the dilemma I am currently experiencing. His ability to remind us that God's hopes for His children enfold and uphold us through whatever our trials may be, if we but persevere--and the conviction with which the Dean conveys this truth--makes one able to take that one more step, for one more day. Bless him.

[@reneelascala5050]

This might be the only occasion I’ve seen and listened to Dean Robert in the total absence of nonhuman beings.

[@christinepooley8657]

I was very pleased to to be able to see and hear Dean Robert Willis again. I miss him and his daily Morning Prayers in the Garden and am currently watching those he did in 2020. His readings and words are a great blessing to me. May God bless Him as he continues to spread our Lord’s words around the world.

[@judyedwards7597]

I'm also watching the current date but in 2020 because I didn't follow the Garden Congregation then.

[@Michele49]

It so wonderful to see this beloved countenance. I have been saving and rewatching the garden devotions.

[@anncarter5172]

I actually haven’t been going back to the old ones, even though there were quite a few I hadn’t seen because I didn’t know about them until about the last year. Now, I think I will start watching and listening again. They were such a blessing to so many, and I wish we had more about what this beloved man is still doing. He and Fletcher have certainly been in my prayers.

[@debday6757]

I, too, am following the Garden Congregation morning prayers daily in 2020. It gave me joy to find this sermon and it is a bonus to know that I have companions in my daily participation in the Garden Congregation. I am very grateful that Robert and Fletcher made the recordings available to us. I pray that they continue to be happy and healthy as life takes them in new directions.

[@hilarydrinkwater5392]

Wrestling with "Our Conscience", our living connectedness to the "Living Word" is to make Love manifest for ourselves ~ the sum of the parts is greater than the parts in isolation and the journey has to be personal in the same way that everyone else has done before; in humility and understanding that Nature is the Divine Constant, Omniscient, Omnipresent and also POTENT.

[@laurasibley6293]

I know the Garden Congregation has felt bereft since Dean Robert retired. Is there a way to find out where he will be in the world? I'm sure many would love to have an opportunity to see him speak in person.

[@juliawake880]

Dear Reverend Robert, It’s so good to see and hear you preaching. My help comes from the song near your website called “In the Name of the Lord” arr.. Mary McDonald - Hope Publishing (14Dec2017). Have you encountered it yourself? With love and prayers from Julia

[@kathymaxted6151]

Does Rev Robert have a male partner???

[@onestarabove7027]

Leave him alone. He had come washing the feet of GOD with his tears.