retreat
I'm away.
Just five days, and I won't even miss a Sunday.
Each year, for about five or six years now, after the first Sunday of Advent, I go on a retreat with a small group of friends. Some are priests, some not. It's a spiritual practice of mine, a discipline that's an important grounding to the whole church year.
Retreats, as I recently learned from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church came back into practice during the Couter-Reformation, and for the Church of England during the Oxford Movement. I'm almost done, don't zone out; it's really not a history lesson. The essential practice of retreating is much older than the first 1856 retreat held in Christ Church, Oxford, and older than the Jesuit-introduced retreats in the late 16th century. The spiritual practice of getting away, to reflect, to rejuvenate, and to renew is probably as old as the practice of prayer. In a sense it is the same thing as daily prayer: the setting aside time to be intentionally in prayer. It's just that this one is for five days.
It's not a silent retreat; I don't want anyone to get a mistakenly over-pious picture of me. There is nature, music, conversation, and again--the whole time is a big prayer. We'll be talking about church and relationships and music and life and death.
While I'm away, I'll be praying for friends and family, and for Trinity by the Sea, and our mission as a church. The big-over-arching prayer practice is to be open. Open to God's presence, God's renewal, God's rest. And then I'll be back.
Just five days, and I won't even miss a Sunday.
Each year, for about five or six years now, after the first Sunday of Advent, I go on a retreat with a small group of friends. Some are priests, some not. It's a spiritual practice of mine, a discipline that's an important grounding to the whole church year.
Retreats, as I recently learned from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church came back into practice during the Couter-Reformation, and for the Church of England during the Oxford Movement. I'm almost done, don't zone out; it's really not a history lesson. The essential practice of retreating is much older than the first 1856 retreat held in Christ Church, Oxford, and older than the Jesuit-introduced retreats in the late 16th century. The spiritual practice of getting away, to reflect, to rejuvenate, and to renew is probably as old as the practice of prayer. In a sense it is the same thing as daily prayer: the setting aside time to be intentionally in prayer. It's just that this one is for five days.
It's not a silent retreat; I don't want anyone to get a mistakenly over-pious picture of me. There is nature, music, conversation, and again--the whole time is a big prayer. We'll be talking about church and relationships and music and life and death.
While I'm away, I'll be praying for friends and family, and for Trinity by the Sea, and our mission as a church. The big-over-arching prayer practice is to be open. Open to God's presence, God's renewal, God's rest. And then I'll be back.
Good practice to keep. I also make a point to retreat as soon as possible after Thanksgiving. One of the things I do is read through the whole Gospel of the year in front of us. It is simply amazing the new insights one continues to gain from Scripture. And from reading large portions rather than the usual snippets.
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