Going on retreat...

Image source

This Sunday afternoon, November 25, I'll be heading to the north shore to spend a week at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester (above).  I'll be back in the parish on Saturday afternoon, December 1, in time to celebrate the beginning of a new year of grace with the First Sunday of Advent.

I've made many retreats over the years at this retreat center on the coast, the first being my ordination retreat in 1973. 

I'll be making a directed retreat which means the week will be spent in silence, broken only by a daily conversation with my retreat director and with prayer and song at Mass each day.  The house rule for the rest of the time is silence, including meal times in the dining room.

I'm often asked if I find the silence difficult to handle: not at all!  I find the quiet to be a peaceful stillness that refreshes and restores my soul and my prayer.

What does one do with all that silent time on a directed retreat?  It's time to slow down, rest, pray, read, reflect, pray, ponder, remember, wonder, pray, and renew and revitalize my relationship with the Lord.  I need and look forward to all of that!

While I'm on retreat I won't be posting on my blog or responding to email or answering my phone. If you stop by here, you'll find this post as a reminder of my whereabouts.

And here's a photo I took last year of the chapel in the center of the main house at Eastern Point.  (That's a tabernacle in the center; the windows overlook the rocks and the ocean; and there are chairs all around the perimeter of the room.)

Photo by CP

I'll be praying for you in this simple beautiful chapel and would be grateful for your prayers for me in return.

I'll see you in Advent!



Tweet

     
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments