Sabbatrical update

I'm growing a little frustrated since I'm told that these posts are NOT showing up on my Facebook profile in a timely manner.  Facebook and this blog seem to get along just fine for weeks at a time then suddenly stop speaking.  It's unfortunate that they've chosen this moment to misbehave.  I hope it will fix itself but I'm sticking to my discipline of not engaging with social media during this retreat.

The writing is going very well. I'm very happy.

I've been informed that "The Wind in the Willows" is NOT typically the sort of reading they get at lunch time.  Brother Andrew has been, shall we say, agitating for it or something like it for a while.  And recently he got his wish.

The following should not be taken as a criticism of Holy Cross Monastery or the brothers of the Order.  I've found the worship here to be a little - strange?  We are invited to be with the brothers when they worship.  But it is very different from the sense of communal worship to which I am accustomed.  It is THEIR worship.  Inevitably there is a feeling that I am merely an observer.  For the first several days I found this a little (just a little) off putting.  I'm beginning to reach a new understanding however.  Yes I am still an "outsider" to a degree and probably always will feel that way.  But the services (I've missed only Matins each day since I've arrived.  I'll make it at least once.  I promise.  Eucharist, Diurnum, Vespers and Compline every day) now offer me a different spiritual experience.  It is transcendent in a completely different way.  It will be interesting to see how that grows during my final two days here.

It is clear to me that while contemplative prayer will always be important to me I am NOT meant to be a full time contemplative or monastic.  I'd go nuts and I'd take my poor prior or superior with me.  My gift to the monastic movement will be to not take a life vow, LOL!

Brief chats with folks on retreat here at the same time reinforces my belief that my little work on personal prayer is a needed resource.  It also seems like if it's any good at all there is a demand for such a thing.  We'll see.

Went outside the building for the first time since Tuesday when I arrived.  I don't carry a watch most days or my cell phone or even my wallet.  Don't miss them either.  Went outside to call home (no cell phones to be used in the Guesthouse.  My phone has been turned off this week.  I check it twice a day for messages.  None so far, which is lovely) and to walk the labyrinth.

The Great Silence hasn't been that bad.  Silence at breakfast is actually kind of nice.

The food continues to be unbelievably good.  Grilled chicken with grilled asparagus and fennel with a Yukon Gold potato salad for lunch.  Fresh Turkey noodle soup with a salad and Danish Blue cheese dressing plus wonderful multi-grain rolls for dinner.

I am insanely happy.

Peace

First Thoughts from the Monastery

Just some of the things that first came to me:

Dere's Wimmen here!

Don't know why that surprised me but it did.  There are at least as many female guests as male.  There's a Habitat for Humanity meeting of some kind going on.  A bunch of these folks seem to be from near Easton Maryland.  All very nice folks.

I didn't realize which ones were the monks.  Yes, I had them in robes at all times in my head.  So shoot me.  The brothers dress very casually so far except at worship where they wear robes.  Average age is probably in the 60's.  Ate lunch with two of them, talked mostly about iPads and computer technology.

We were read to at lunch.  A tradition for Benedictines I seem to remember (maybe other orders too).  Much to my surprise our reading at the moment is "Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame.  Toad has just revealed his plan to go on a trip with Mole and Rat in a caravan.  It was both rather surreal and delightful to sit and eat with a view of the Hudson River and have a monk read "Wind in the Willows" to you.  It's going to be a week of wonders I think, lol.

A moment to discuss food!  Now there's a wonder for you.  Selection is home style, here's what's to eat.  Dinner last night was a vegetable lasagna,  lunch today was salmon with wilted spinach in a miso glaze, rice, seaweed and mushrooms in a soy lacquer and cucumber and long bean salad (which also had spinach in it).  The food has been very nutritious and delicious.  Breakfast is done in total silence (the Great Silence each day ends after breakfast.  8:50PM to 8:30AM).  Not speaking to others is no problem but I tend to talk with myself.  Insert your snide remark here.

Chapel has been very different that anything I'm accustomed to but wonderful.  Lots of chanting of prayers and Psalms.  There are some long silences and I promised myself to simply be in the moment and not look at my watch.  Promptly caught one of the brothers checking his!

My cell (described previously) is simple but not spartan.  Double bed, desk and chair, armchair, dresser, two simple closets, two bed stands, various lamps and an alarm clock.  And a carpeted floor.  Nicer than any of my college dorm rooms by far.  Hall baths, two per floor.  Very nice.

And the writing moves forward.

From my prayer journal

First night at Holy Cross - You've brought me to a holy community Lord.  I find it both peaceful and intimidating.  Hearing Compline sung was beautiful and transporting.  The commitment to follow you in  this way and to this degree is a little scary.  I envy their commitment but not their path.  Help me to find that commitment I need for my own path.  Amen

Peace

Sabbatical - My spiritual retreat begins

Well the final week has begun.  I will spend this last time on a spiritual retreat focused on writing up my project at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park NY.  The setting is beautiful (this is the church at right where I've worshiped twice so far).  The grounds look pretty much like what you'd expect from a monastery (or a private school).  The grounds run down to the Hudson River.  I hope to have photos to share (oooh, I think I forgot my cable for my camera.  So photos may have to wait till I'm back.  Sorry).
My hope, goal and intent is to get virtually the entire first draft finished before I leave.  I certainly have the right environment for it.  My cell (yes that's what they call the rooms in the Guesthouse) is on the third floor at the southern end of the building.  I have two windows that look out over the grounds with a view of the river to my left.  I can actually get the Guesthouse wifi (located on the first floor in the Library) up here so I can actually write in my room with connection if I want.  My goal is to be pretty much shut down as far as social networking for the week.  These posts should post on Facebook but I won't be checking it. 

Having said all that I got off to a fairly typical start for me.  Which means my visit with my friends at Natural Stone Bridge and Caves (if you love hiking and the outdoors and caves and running water and the like this should be a must see.  It's only a 7 hour drive from my corner of the state, lots of places to stay, all of Adirondack Park to explore as well.  Plus a WONDERFUL place to explore.  The current owners include a boyhood friend of my brothers and mine.  They've done a great job.  Here ends the gratuitous commercial plug!) and so I was running late. 

Did I mention it snowed while I was there?  And that just north of there was expecting up to a foot of new snow today?

Anyway all was well till I got to Kingston NY where my handy-dandy instructions told me to get off.  Sadly the instructions and reality do not match.  So I got lost.  No worries.  I pull out my handy-dandy iPhone and use it's GPS function.  Which sent me to the middle of nowhere.  Figuring I had just not given specific enough directions I had it look up Holy Cross and said "Go There".  Which promptly informed me that I needed to be on the EASTERN side of the Hudson.  I was pretty certain that was wrong.  In fact I was CERTAIN that was wrong.  So I called Holy Cross.  Turns out I was on the right side of the river and on the correct road.  Trying to read the directions had caused me to glance down at just the wrong moment and I missed the sign!  Yes, I drove right past it.  With a little coaching from Laurie in the office I got turned around and into the house in short order.

Where I promptly broke a house rule.  Sigh.  Wanting to let my lady wife know that I was in and safe I called her from my room.  10 minutes later I read the rule that said "No cellphones in the Guesthouse".  Nice, Jay.  So the cellphone has been turned off.  I'll check it a couple times a day just to make sure nothing urgent has come up.  So for all my friends, family and other beloveds, try to have anything urgent happen this week.  K? Thnx.  Bye.

More later.