Retreat into the world

I'm back.

I guess an apology is due for the misdescription of the sub-title of this blog as for the past ten days it has certainly not appeared daily.

All sorts of reasons for my absence of course, but the main one is that I was on retreat last week and then Liz, Becky, Rose and I went to Gatwick with Kieran to wish him off on his gap year in Uganda before having a really busy weekend. And then I've been catching up with work of course....So I'll see if I can improve in my regularity for the rest of the week.

But for tonight a short word about my retreat.

Although I am not as regular a retreatant as perhaps I would wish, I do go on retreat about once a year. Yet this was the first time I went completely on my own in a totally unstructured way. That made it both much more difficult and much more rewarding.

More difficult because I have to really try hard not to be occupied with the inevitably tall pile of reading I took with me.

More rewarding because there is a greater opportunity to find true silence on your own, unencumbered by a retreat leaders own thoughts.

So I shaped my day by the regular worship at Launde Abbey, did a bit of walking, a bit of reading and writing, and a very great deal of thinking...

The result was that by being more focused than usual, I felt a great deal more involved in the world around me. That world had smaller horizons but I had a more intense relationship with it - a more real engagement with people and place - and of course, with self.

And so just as the desert fathers found, and just as monastic communities have found for hundreds of years, retreating from the world can provide a very real opportunity to enter more fully into it.

Which begs the question - what are we doing most of the time? Is my normal routine of life totally superficial?

I hope not. But I have returned more committed to prayer as the foundation of all that I do.

On a more practical note, I know some people are having problems with posting comments (which is why there aren't any I imagine!). I am looking into it....