Retreat Journal, Dec 13-15, Knobs Haven
We met for our annual early December retreat, members of the Spiritual Growth Network, this time just four of our founding members, John Parks, Ann Siudmak, Mike Kavanaugh, and myself were present, two others having cancelled. The Arctic air had finally moved in, so we appreciated the old fashioned heating via the old noisy free standing radiators in the rooms.
We began our discussion Monday evening with the need for hope. Mike read the beautiful summoning letter from Clarissa Pinkola Estes "We Were Made for These Times," author of the bestseller, Women Who Run With Wolves. This we had published on our web discussion and also in our December newsletter. Her concluding words:
"There can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.
"In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. This comes with much love and a prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth."
I found a quote from Pascal: "In difficult times, you should always carry something beautiful in your mind." This was my personal theme for the retreat. We have been sharing now--the four of us--at the deepest level possible for many years. So our trust level, humor, respect, reverence and openness with each other is very deep.
Meditation: I choose not to avoid seeing the pain of the world, but to live in the world of beauty, awe, wonder, loving, striving, seeking, courage, compassion, listening, and I - Thou relationships. When we live in graciousness, we find beauty everywhere.
A friend put a book in my hands before I left for the retreat and it was precisely the book I needed for my meditation there: Beauty by John O’Donohue, author of Anam Cara. And believe it or not I quickly found one by Rumi (my current favorite poet) in the first several pages.
"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."
Several sisters of Loretto visited our table at meals. One Sister Paschalitta had been in vows for 70 years. Another, Sister Kathleen Vonderhaar, had a prison ministry teaching meditation with prayer cards to share for our own prison inmate group at the Fayette County Detention center. Another, Sister Rose Henry, shared a newly published cookbook from St. Augustine’s in Lebanon and a story she had contributed. (I will post this Christmas Tree story later.) I bought one for Janette.
Sister Paschalitta was blind in both eyes, with macular degeneration, but the most curious mind, asking each of us in turn our names, where we were from and where we had went to school. "What a wonderful role model for growing old," we discussed after she had left. She was born in 1914, so is now 90 years young.
It was a blessed, gracious and restful pause together. The hospitality at the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse is always superb. It is one of those sacred and holy places that simply emanates Presence. A thousand young Catholic women have given their lives to God there. Theirs is the oldest native American order of sisters in the USA. They were the order that staffed the Catholic schools in Lebanon, Kentucky, where I and my siblings went to grade school. (There is always one to come to the table to tell a story of me in the first grade.) We have been "retreating" there four times yearly now for 15 years. It is hard to believe that fact.
Paschal
December 15.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
We began our discussion Monday evening with the need for hope. Mike read the beautiful summoning letter from Clarissa Pinkola Estes "We Were Made for These Times," author of the bestseller, Women Who Run With Wolves. This we had published on our web discussion and also in our December newsletter. Her concluding words:
"There can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.
"In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. This comes with much love and a prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth."
I found a quote from Pascal: "In difficult times, you should always carry something beautiful in your mind." This was my personal theme for the retreat. We have been sharing now--the four of us--at the deepest level possible for many years. So our trust level, humor, respect, reverence and openness with each other is very deep.
Meditation: I choose not to avoid seeing the pain of the world, but to live in the world of beauty, awe, wonder, loving, striving, seeking, courage, compassion, listening, and I - Thou relationships. When we live in graciousness, we find beauty everywhere.
A friend put a book in my hands before I left for the retreat and it was precisely the book I needed for my meditation there: Beauty by John O’Donohue, author of Anam Cara. And believe it or not I quickly found one by Rumi (my current favorite poet) in the first several pages.
"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."
Several sisters of Loretto visited our table at meals. One Sister Paschalitta had been in vows for 70 years. Another, Sister Kathleen Vonderhaar, had a prison ministry teaching meditation with prayer cards to share for our own prison inmate group at the Fayette County Detention center. Another, Sister Rose Henry, shared a newly published cookbook from St. Augustine’s in Lebanon and a story she had contributed. (I will post this Christmas Tree story later.) I bought one for Janette.
Sister Paschalitta was blind in both eyes, with macular degeneration, but the most curious mind, asking each of us in turn our names, where we were from and where we had went to school. "What a wonderful role model for growing old," we discussed after she had left. She was born in 1914, so is now 90 years young.
It was a blessed, gracious and restful pause together. The hospitality at the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse is always superb. It is one of those sacred and holy places that simply emanates Presence. A thousand young Catholic women have given their lives to God there. Theirs is the oldest native American order of sisters in the USA. They were the order that staffed the Catholic schools in Lebanon, Kentucky, where I and my siblings went to grade school. (There is always one to come to the table to tell a story of me in the first grade.) We have been "retreating" there four times yearly now for 15 years. It is hard to believe that fact.
Paschal
December 15.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
posted by Paschal Baute at 5:43 PM
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1 Comments:
Paschal,
I've long been fascinated by the SGN. Some time I'd appreciate a few comments on "what the group has learned /experienced over the 15 years...and implications for spiritual growth for others."
Bob Graf
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