June retreat

 Retreat week brings more time with nature as we all walk around the grounds and down to Glinodo and the lake much more than usual.

This scene we will not see, however, as the photo was taken10 days ago or so and since then they have grown and grown and changed and changed and are now gone! What a fun time watching them, half-hidden at the bottom of a bush in one of our gardens. 

During retreat this year I've decided to go back and re-read a book from one of my favorite writers, Cistercian Michael Casey from Tarrawarra Abbey in Australia. He is a retreat leader and lecturer all over the world, on spirituality, especially monastic life, and has even been to our place. 

Here is an excerpt from his book, Stranger to the City, that I'll be browsing through this week.

"Visitors occasionally remark on the sacredness that pervades a monastsery, how it evokes in them a spiritual awareness that is normally latent. In the different ambiance conversions occur, not because of anything that was said or heard, but simply because in stepping outside their familiar world, they are confronted with a different side of themselves. Like travelers in a foreign country they find themselves responding to events in a way that would surprise those who know them at home. For many today, especially those who are unchurched or impatient with institutionalized religion, a monastery can become thier spiritual home."