Categories: church
Tags: retreat, Christianity, church
Date: 01 December 2005 10:44:17
Just reading Ian's description of his retreat last weekend, it occurs to me that I've talked a lot about the "spiritual self-help" sort of aspect of my own retreat, but not so much about the bigger picture. That's something which I find quite frustrating about my spiritual life at the moment, to be honest - I could talk for hours about me (which I guess is why I blog!) but feel a bit thick when it comes to wider questions about life, the universe and everything. So I'll probably do this in bite-sized chunks as and when things occur to me, which isn't such a bad thing, as I didn't want the retreat to just be a weekend, but to continue to have some sort of impact in the days, weeks, months that follow.
Just a wee bit of background - the monastery/spiritual centre I stayed at was Catholic, of the Redemptorist order. I must admit to being very hazy about what that means, but I'll provide some links in a few weeks when I get my own computer back. Most of the other people staying there were in their 6th week (of 7) of a retreat course that is run a few times each year, so knew each other well, and as far as I could tell I was the only non-Catholic there. That wasn't a big problem, and one thing which struck me was how they seemed to integrate the personal with the wider world. I'm not putting that very well, I suppose what I mean is that the rituals of Catholicism, some of which seemed quite alien to me as I'm not from that background, were such a natural part of their life that they were like breathing for them, that church life, individual devotion and prayer, and wider social and religious issues, were totally integrated with the more mundane aspects of individual life. I know that I'm terrible for compartmentalising aspects of my life, and that integration that I saw there was very challenging to me.
I only went to Mass once, on the Sunday. As I've not been going to an Anglican church for a while I've got a bit out of the Church Seasons thing, so although I'd vaguely realised it was the first Sunday of Advent that hadn't really sunk in until they lit the first Advent candle, and I must admit I felt a bit unprepared. One thing I was a little sad about was that, being a Catholic mass, I was unable to take communion there. I'm looking forward to getting back into regular communion, the Eucharist always helps me take my eyes off myself and towards God. I guess I felt, not unwelcome, but a bit separate.