Mar 4, 2012

Can I Go Back Yet?

This weekend was another grace filled weekend. Seminarian Andrew Jasper (who looks barely out of highschool, but is really in his 30's) led the retreat. There is such a peace about Andrew that is rarely found. His backup was Monsignor Mahold (or something like that). He's a jolly old priest who seems to have been everywhere and met every saint of the 21st century and has a story to go with it.

This retreat was focused on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, who I'm guessing was a type A personality. The exercises themselves have a definite format and rely to a great deal on imagery, as in picture yourself at the foot of the cross with Mary and John. For me, the imagining things is really easy. Sticking to a specific format was a little more difficult. I get far better results from spontaneous prayer as opposed to formatted prayer. When I was at BroomTree in November, I had great conversations with God while out walking. This time, there were only a few. The few I had were spectacular, but I felt like it was work to get those few. I did do considerably more writing this time. In fact, I ran out of pages before the end of the retreat. Between notes and journaling I went through quite a bit of paper. I will give it a few days and go back through to see what gems I can glean from those pages. The notes will be of use if I decide to give some of the exercises another try, which I expect I will.

I wish it had been longer so that I could really get a grasp on the exercises, but I accomplished quite a bit in the little bit of time I had there. I'm not sure when my next visit to BroomTree will be, but I'm sure it will not be soon enough.


2 comments:

  1. Dear Author:

    Your writing merits you the title Dave Barry of the Catholic Blogosphere. Whereas this is utterly unofficial (I've scarcely made it through the blogs beginning with A on Catholic Blog Directory), it would seem to provide a most welcome counter to the decidedly ominous tone which I can seem neither to avoid nor contain. (Perhaps a warm and fuzzy keyboard blessing from a modernist priest would do the trick).


    Ben Quivenit
    Light and Darkness

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you...I think. I haven't read any of Dave Barry's stuff, but I have heard he's popular.

    What's the link to your blog so I can check it out?

    (Don't forget the gender neutral prayers to go with the blessing for good measure. Your keyboard might get offended if you don't.)

    ReplyDelete