Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

~ Matthew 5:8

A Lenten Retreat: Connection and Awe

A couple of weeks ago, a wonderful group of twenty-five friends met together on a Saturday morning in the Saint John’s Chapel to conduct a Lenten Retreat. We started with a sacred reading (lectio divina) from Thomas Merton: “There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy.”

The topic for the guided meditation we shared was “allowing things to be as they are.” The meditation was one of kenosis, letting go. As the silence deepened, you could feel the connection, heart to heart, of each one of us to another. You could sense the silent opening of our hearts to God -- reaching toward divine connection, feeling the awe of Presence.

We have wonderful worship and Sunday School class programs at Saint John’s. In these group gatherings, worshiping, learning, and enjoying fellowship with dear friends are rich and nourishing parts of our time together. A contemplative retreat such as the one held this past Saturday is a bit different in tone, but not in objective.

For worship done in retreat, the real work is done in silence. As best we are able, we try in our retreats to fulfill the purpose defined by Fr. Richard Rohr:

Contemplation is the practice of being fully present—in heart, mind, and body—to what is in a way that allows you to creatively respond and work toward what could be. Only the contemplative mind can bring forward the new consciousness that is needed to awaken a more loving, just, and sustainable world.

From this perspective, contemplation is not an escape, but rather, it is an essential element needed to enliven our faith and strength in difficult times. It renews our connection with others in our shared community of faith and with the wider human collective. It deepens our connection with God, the Spirit of eternal and on-going creation. It restores our sense of awe.

Those who host and organize a retreat well know that “learning” contemplation goes far beyond the words and walls of the retreat. At the end of our retreat that Saturday, we closed with the perceptive words of Thomas Merton in Seeds:

No one teaches contemplation except God, Who gives it. The best you can do is write something or say something that will serve as an occasion for someone else to realize what God wants of him or her.

I hope that you might consider joining us for our next contemplative retreat at Saint John's, which will be on Saturday, May 9. Look for registration details next month.