of retreats and marathons

Every half marathon or other endurance race I've run has a familiar pattern: I warm up in the first kilometer, find a rhythm and run most of the way at that pace. Then somewhere in the back third or quarter it gets really tough,  everything hurts and I want to quit. But if I press through I get a second wind and then when I see the finish line I can sprint home.

Most retreats follow this pattern too, and so it  was with this 8 day (really 10 days) retreat in Griswold, Iowa, surrounded by gently rolling hills covered in corn and soyabean farms.

I had a great spiritual director who gave me some spiritual exercises to do (eg, read the healing of the blind man in Mark 10, meditate from the point of view of the blind man, then from the point of view of Jesus, then from in prayer sit with Jesus and let him as you the question he asked the blind man "what do you want me to do for you?"

But by Tuesday I'd just had enough peace, silence and prayer, and I wanted to get  out of there. Jetlag and poor sleep didn't help. But as always, pressing on in was the way to be faithful to Jesus and as so often happens, there was a breakthrough and the last day was the best, and sprinted on to the finish.

Comments

  1. Dominic16 June 2016 at 13:23

    I was thinking of you and your retreat experience while walking around the Abbey of Mont St Michel yesterday. During the tour we entered the chapel where I saw en exposition of the blessed sacrament. Eager to go forward to spend a minute I saw a monk there to the side in quite prayer. I thought this guy must have some great control to cancel out the noise of the crowd and meditate. I guess your inner voice must be yelling at you after a few days of quiet. Your subject to meditate on was a a good one so often we can get caught up in the what somebody can do for us and not what can we do for them.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Spiritual Exercises

Image
Any way of prayer or mediation may be considered a spiritual exercise. Just like physical exercise it helps to have a plan, a coach and some discipline. The Spiritual Exercises (notice the capitals) are a series of meditations and contemplations which 16th century St Ignatius of Loyola composed from his own prayer experience, and then taught to his followers, who became the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits). The Exercises are mostly contemplations of scenes in the gospels, where we are to use our imagination to place ourselves within the scene so as to meet Jesus intimately, allowing the gospel account to unfold as we watch, listen, feel and take part. Following the contemplation of the scene is a prayer dialogue with Jesus about whatever we experienced and learned. Woven throughout the program of gospel scenes which Ignatius chose are some specific meditations on sorrow for sin, choosing to follow Jesus, and then giving yourself wholeheartedly to Jesus. The Exercises can be don
Read more

Rhythm

Image
I'm now in the middle of my second term. Life on college campus has a wonderful rhythm here, which for me is 6 wake, prayer, breakfast 8 Counselling skills class 10 Theology of the Spiritual Exercises class 12 lunch, break, study 5   Mass , dinner study, exercise and that's about it! In between there are wonderful conversations in the dorm rooms and hallways,and occasional walks downtown for groceries or an evening stroll. Tuesday night is a 7pm Mass for our whole class group (about 50 people this term) and Friday night is a social dinner. Weekends are free, and I usually go to the 10.30am Mass here on campus. Some people here are getting cabin fever, feeling frustrated and/or bored of the same routine and being with the same people all the time. I like it. I think having spent years in seminary I'm quite OK with an institutional style of life. It feels to me very contained, where all my focus is on the one community of people and in the same direction. In normal
Read more

Brian Wilson

Image
Brian Wilson was the brains behind The Beach Boys, who seem to feature in the soundtrack of most people's teenage years. Tonight I went to hear him in concert in Omaha as he played for the 50th anniversary of the Pet Sounds album, a record so groundbreaking that Paul McCartney cites it as inspiration for Sergeant Peppers. I wouldn't have known the concert was on except that The Beach Boys are my room mate Kevin's favourite band. I fell in love with Brian Wilson when I watched the biopic Love and Mercy last year. Wow. What  perfect concert. It was outdoors at sunset, but in a small amphitheater rather than a stadium. As befitting a concert by a 74 year old and attended by hippies of various generations it was over by 9pm so not a long late night (its a school night!) and close enough to walk the couple of miles home. Brian and his 10 piece band played the whole Pet Sounds album including the sublime God Only Knows plus all of the upbeat favourites like Good Vibra
Read more