I'm making my annual retreat at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester. 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, my prayer and my relationship with Jesus.
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 to see how the Lord is moving and wants to move in my life... I need and look forward to all of that!
Posting here will be light and/or drawn from my seasonal archives.
Here's a photo I took of the chapel in 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.) I'll be praying for you in this simple beautiful chapel and would be grateful for your prayers for me in return.
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