At St. Meinrad, an Arch-Abbey and Seminary in Southeast Indiana. The grounds are quite fetching. Not comparable to a lot of places I would go to enjoy nature, but very appealing to the senses, and feature some unique settings, like the grotto pictured above.
I'm not a spiritual giant, so a spiritual retreat for me does not consist of breakthroughs in my walk with Christ, life-changing insights into scripture, or hours of world-changing prayer. I wish this was the case, and I hope someday that sentence will describe my retreats, but for now, I simply try to spend time with Jesus.
What does that look like? I walk around outside alot. There are a couple of ponds on campus with trails surrounding them, park benches, gazebos and the like. I try to slow down and observe my surroundings. Its been more difficult here recently since the construction/restoration of a main building began. The noise of machinery can be a challenge to ignore.
So what did I observe today? All interesting and harmless wildlife fleeing from my presence as though my casual glances were poisonous. Frogs, turtles, butterflies - all the nice creatures. In contrast, all the annoying, biting, pestering creatures rushed toward me voraciously. Mosquitoes, gnats, ticks - I even watched as a small water snake wended its way in my general direction. Why nature works this way, I don't really know, but the easiest thing to do is blame it on Eve and the Fall.
I read scripture and pray as I walk. I've discovered that I am a kinetic pray-er. I find it difficult to focus on what I'm saying while sitting or standing still, but let me walk, even if only in tight, dizzying circles, and I can go for...minutes. I try to avoid the pressure to pray about Everything. Sometimes when I set aside time for prayer I feel like I have to mention absolutely every person (sick and well, Lost and Saved, missionaries and ministers, family, friends and enemies), lift up every event, dig up every personal weakness and fault. It can be overwhelming, and I find I barely scratch the surface of many important matters. So I narrow the focus to a few matters, then spend some time trying to listen. This is tough. it requires silence, patience, simplicity. I usually find a one-day retreat too short to really listen well. I need a couple days of de-tox from my normal life to clear all the noise out of my head and heart first.
For scripture reading I choose familiar passages on which I can meditate at length. Today, John 5-12. That's sounds like a huge chunk, but I've got 6 hours. Its just about right.
Normally I would journal thoughts and questions about the passage, but having no journal today, I simply talked some of it through out loud - something easier to do in complete solitude than in, say, Starbucks.
I usually visit the library, either to escape weather or to have a more comfortable seat than nature can offer. Today I browsed a little, read a sermon from a book of homilies, flipped through a couple volumes on the topic of "Jesus as the 'Son of Man'", and scanned a brief treatise on speaking in tongues.
I keep lunch very simple, letting a slight hunger remain throughout the day to keep me sharp.
I always visit the Church. Here its more of what people would think of as a cathedral. Lots of columns and arches, marble and granite, stained glass, ridiculously high ceilings, statues and carvings. I love it. I don't understand a lot of it, and some that I do understand I disagree with, but I love the art, the statement it makes about the artists view of God. These artists believe in a really big God.
I do too.
0 comments:
Post a Comment