Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Silent Retreat
I’ve really enjoyed this retreat. I was so ready for it: I needed to get in touch with me again – I’ve been spending so much time with people who are different from me (i.e. my housemates), that I haven’t really expressed myself much and haven’t really been the Me that I know is in there…
For being a "silent retreat", there was less silence and more sound than I was expecting. The silence started on Friday night and ended before dinner on Sunday. And during it, there were opportunities for activities that involved listening to other people talk and listenting to music or singing (guided prayer, yoga, Taize, music at mealtimes...) Plus, the three meetings with my spiritual director.
One of the spiritual directors this weekend was a young woman who had just returned from El Salvador. She’s 27 and in her first year as a novice. When she introduced herself the first night, I just had to talk to her, what with the El Salvador connection and the novice/same age as my sister thing...
I had a great spiritual director who asked good questions and was easy to talk to and let me not say anything. Would I consider myself a Christian? How would I name my spirituality? Am I asking the right question [in prayer] – what do I really want to know? Why is making time to connect with God in the middle of my day important to me?
I got to walk in the woods, climb trees, listen to my thoughts, and reconnect with my spirituality. there were rhododendrons and evergreens, including cedars, and giant poplars and oaks and maples. and birds and woodpeckers. I got a sunburn, too…
The only problem with retreats is that I get to spend time with other JVs who are a lot more like me and it makes me wish they were my housemates…
For being a "silent retreat", there was less silence and more sound than I was expecting. The silence started on Friday night and ended before dinner on Sunday. And during it, there were opportunities for activities that involved listening to other people talk and listenting to music or singing (guided prayer, yoga, Taize, music at mealtimes...) Plus, the three meetings with my spiritual director.
One of the spiritual directors this weekend was a young woman who had just returned from El Salvador. She’s 27 and in her first year as a novice. When she introduced herself the first night, I just had to talk to her, what with the El Salvador connection and the novice/same age as my sister thing...
I had a great spiritual director who asked good questions and was easy to talk to and let me not say anything. Would I consider myself a Christian? How would I name my spirituality? Am I asking the right question [in prayer] – what do I really want to know? Why is making time to connect with God in the middle of my day important to me?
I got to walk in the woods, climb trees, listen to my thoughts, and reconnect with my spirituality. there were rhododendrons and evergreens, including cedars, and giant poplars and oaks and maples. and birds and woodpeckers. I got a sunburn, too…
The only problem with retreats is that I get to spend time with other JVs who are a lot more like me and it makes me wish they were my housemates…
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