My Retreat

From the evening of June 22 through that of June 27, I went for a spiritual retreat at the monastery where I was a prospective monk back in the late 1960's. It was also an occasion to visit with some of the monks I had known when I was there as well as to become acquainted with some of the newer ones. The days all followed a similar schedule, approximately as follows:

• 6:00 - 6:45 Vigils and Lauds, services consisting mainly of chanted psalms, with readings and prayers. I'd get up some time shortly after 5:00 get dressed, go to the refectory to grab a cup of coffee to bring back to my room. Afterwards, back in my room, I'd read several pages of Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body."
• 7:25 Breakfast. Read, shave, get ready for Mass
• 8:30 Mass followed by more reading, or picture-taking, strolling around campus
• 10:00 a "meditation" from the book "Praying with Thomas Merton." This book had 15 meditations on various topics from Merton's writings. So I used three of them each day. Each took about 45 minutes. Afterwards, until time for the next activity, I'd do more walking around the church and campus, thinking a bit more about the meditation, enjoying the surroundings, maybe taking pictures, getting more coffee, etc.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My room in the monastery. This is where I did the meditations and my other reading.
  
  
• 12:00 - 12:45 Daytime Prayer (psalms & prayers) followed by lunch. Then I'd preview one or another of the readings for the following Sunday's Mass.
• 2:00 another meditation
• 3:30 Haustus — a snack in the refectory. Usually the junior monks — two novices and one monk in the third year of temporary vows — would be there after a work project, and sometimes one of the older monks would join them. It was a nice chance to converse and get acquainted.
• 4:00 the third meditation of the day
• 5:30 - 6:30/45 Vespers followed by dinner followed by recreation (monks gathering in the chapter room for conversation, games such as cribbage, dominoes, or scrabble, reading newspapers, then some going for a walk around campus).
• 7:30 Compline — the prayers before retiring, after which I'd maybe review the meditations of the day, walk around a bit more, pray privately
• approx. 10:00 go to bed.

View from the area where I sat during services and Mass. There were monks in the section to the left and visitors in the center section.

The altar of the church, with crucifix above. Beyond the altar is the choir, where we were for prayers and Mass. The stalls in the earlier picture are in the section to the left, and I was generally in the back row to the right.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel in an alcove to the right of the area shown in the previous picture. The mosaics were being created when I arrived there, and the artist let us prospective monks each put a tile in the mosaics. Mine is somewhere in the head of the whale (it's swallowing Jonah) on the left.

The southern wall of the nave (the section behind me when I took the picture of the choir). The nave only has people in the benches for services when there's a Mass for students or really big event.

Lunches and dinners were generally* eaten in the refectory in silence, with reading aloud. While I was there, the book being read was "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy," by Eric Metaxas. It was so interesting that after I got home I bought it so I could read the rest.

* In the summer, Sunday evening dinners are eaten, weather permitting, informally in the cloister; so there's no reading, just conversation among those at each table of six to eight. And as it happened, the week I was there, Tuesday and Friday were both very high ranking church feasts, plus there was a special group of visitors on Tuesday. So we had another dinner in the cloister on Tuesday; and on Friday, although we were in the refectory, there was no reading and the two people at each table could talk with each other. One of the junior monks was next to me, and we had a nice conversation, including a bit about traveling in Ireland, which we each had done.

Two sides of the cloister. When dinner was outside, the food would be buffet style in the far end of the covered section, and there would be a couple of tables in the covered section and a couple in the area to the right of the birch tree.

Refectory. The abbot, retired abbots, prior, and subprior sit at the table along the far wall. The others sit along the sides by seniority beginning from the abbot's table. I was seated at the second table on the left. Food was served buffet style on the tables in the middle. The reader's place is behind where I was when I took this picture.

It was good being back there for maybe the fifth time in the past 45 years. A couple of the older monks use devices (walker, chair on wheels) to get around, but they are still very much a part of things. One of the oldest, who is a retired abbot and retired bishop of Portland, Maine, was serving as Novice Master. (He's in his upper 80's and walks unaided.) Another supervised the novices' gardening work one day (another day the abbot did). I enjoyed spending time with them, as well as with the abbot, who was a college student I knew when I was there in the sixties. And it was good to get acquainted with the newest monks. Also, I learned who some of the ones who joined between 1970 and 2010 are.

As for the spiritual side of things, I think I got some good insights from the "meditations," and if I follow through on them, it will have been very worthwhile.

This is long enough. I may write another post with some specifics, but this at least can give some idea of what went on.