Our Oblate Retreat, Part 1. A Benedictine oblate blog.

"Peace I leave with you"

[Click picture to enlarge]

We are back home from the oblate retreat, but our hearts are still at the peaceful monastery.

The oblate weekend retreat my wife and I attended was a spiritual blessing.

We had prepared for the retreat for about a month — I focused on beauty and wrote about my preparation in several prior blogs. All of the preparation was worth it, we loved every minute.

Unselfish love was a major theme of the retreat sessions.

I also learned about forgiveness, and I went from head knowledge to heart knowledge — as they say. I could have correctly answered a Bible test on forgiveness before, but there are parts of forgiveness that I now understand more deeply or in a better relationship to other Truth. I think I have gained one step in my walk as an oblate.

The retreat began Friday at 7:00 pm registration and went until Sunday at 1:00 pm just after lunch. My wife and I arrived on Friday at 11:35 am just in time for 11:45 am Mass and we stayed until the end of vespers on Sunday at 5:30 pm.

I have a picture in my mind of Mass on Friday beginning two and half days of deep spiritual peace and learning. The end of our retreat is also clear in my memory, we watched the backs of the monks in their flowing black robes processing out of the church in two columns at the end of vespers Sunday evening. The organ was playing so beautifully, it was an emotional moment. As we walked out after the monks left, a big part of me stayed there in the quiet old abbey church.

In upcoming blogs, I will give the schedule of the retreat so you will know the structure of how the oblate retreat was organized.