Call off the search parties
The retreat at the Carmelite Monastery was nice. Here's some pictures, the first of those long-remembered tall stone walls and the rest of the beautiful chapel:
It was a silent retreat--for us at least. There were three talks about Teresa of Avila given by Father Tim Byerley, who also works with the Collegium Center, a kind of religious education outreach project for young adult Catholics in South Jersey (I mentioned it a few months ago as a model of young adult youth outreach that Friends might want to consider). Much of what Teresa has to say about prayer is universal and very applicable to Friends, though I have to admit I started spacing out by around the fourth mansion of the Interior Castle (I've never been good with numbered religious steps!).
I'm in no danger of following my wife Julie's journey from Friends to Catholicism, though as always I very much enjoyed being in the midst of a gathered group committed to a spirituality. The idea of religious life as self-abnegation is an important one for all Christians in an age where me-ism has become the secular state religion and I hope to return to it in the near future.
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About Martin
I’m a Quaker from
South Jersey with a love of
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For the last five years, I've gone on at least one silent retreat a year. I think that's something I'll never give up, regardless of where my spiritual path ends up.
I'm glad to hear that it was a good experience for you. I love St. Teresa's autobiography, but The Interior Castle is very "chewy" reading. :-)
Well, I'm glad that you survived, and that you weren't subjected to an "auto da fe," like the Anabaptists in Voltaire's 'Candide.' ;)
It sounds like a great experience, actually. My wife and I used to go on silent retreats fairly regularly, most of them inter-religious but with a strong Catholic flavor and presence. Ironically, we haven't been on a silent retreat since joining the "silent assemblies of God's people." I think we might be due for a tune-up, so to speak.