Hello everyone, and thank you for your prayers for my retreat this past weekend. It was a fruitful time of prayer, penance, solitude, sleep...and not much else! The Devil did not bother me much, thanks be to God.
There were only four friars at this particular friary and while hospitable, I didn't interact with them much. I did have the opportunity to join them at 6am morning prayer, 12:15pm Holy Mass, 3:45 Holy Hour and evening prayer, and 8:25pm night prayer. Apart from that I spent the time in my hermitage reading and praying. The propane tank was empty, though, and it got down to just above freezing at night but the hermitage stayed around fifty degrees at least.
I switched my phone to airplane mode (so I could still use my alarm) when I arrived and didn't turn it back on until I was leaving on Sunday; it was such a simple thing, but I couldn't believe the effect it had on my psyche, as well as my sleep. With little to no distractions, I slept like a complete rock. When I was reading, I was reading. When I was walking, I was walking. When I was eating my bread and drinking my tea, that's what I was doing. I had much more mental real estate even in those short three days; and yet this is simply how all people lived just a few decades ago!
For meditation, I read from the scriptures (the prophet Ezekial), The Imitation of Christ and the Philokalia, as well as St. John Climacus Ladder of Divine Ascent. For pleasure, I read historical accounts of the early Romans such as Pliny the Younger and how they viewed the Christians in the first and second century. Their "superstitious" obstinancy when faced with execution simply for being Christians was a puzzlment to the Romans, who regarded themselves as religious in their own right, yet using their "religion" as a means of advancement in civil society. They valued tradition, order, career--not unlike non-religious conservatives today. And yet, most first century Christians were on the low rung of the social ladder. It seemed madness to the Romans, though their preoccupation was in keeping order and maintaining social status; the Christians were like gnats that were constantly having to be swatted away or otherwise "dealt with."
It does seem strange--as followers of Christ we deprive ourselves in this life for reward in the next. We suffer shame in high society and choose a lower order for the sake of elevation in the Heavenly Kingdom. The poor and outcasts take their place at the banquet table while the rich are sent away hungry. Everything is flipped on its head.
And yet, I had a great degree of peace these past few days doing my best to follow Christ more intentionally, in order to conform everything about my life to his. There is a secret to the Christian life, a secret the world runs around looking for here and there, coming up with nothing but straw. But it's a secret in plain view, a gift freely given, a Way clearly laid out for anyone to follow. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you" (Jn 14:27).
Thank you again, and be assured of my prayers as well. Here are some pictures, since a picture is worth a thousand words:
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