Retreat Part 2, Overall Schedule. A Benedictine oblate blog

St. Leo Abbey, Florida, USA

[Click picture to enlarge]

The schedule for the weekend retreat was as follows — beginning with registration Friday after work and extending until Sunday just after lunch so people had enough time to drive back home. Some oblates drove many hours to attend the retreat.

Friday evening:

Registration
Opening Conference
Conversation/Quiet Time
Grand Silence/Retire

Saturday:

Lauds
Breakfast
Morning Conference
Break
Bead Workshop
Mass
Lunch

Medes
Confessions
Group Picture
Private time
Lector Workshop (optional) (Lectors read portions of the Bible during Mass)
Chaplet of Divine Mercy
Afternoon Conference

Vespers
Supper
Rosary
Sacrament of Anointing
Evening Conference
Social
Grand Silence/Retire

Sunday:

Lauds
Breakfast
Morning Conference
Mass
Novice Meeting

Medes
Picture of all Oblates
Lunch
Pack and Leave

*********************************

The above was the official schedule. As I wrote in the previous blog, my wife and I arrived at the abbey about 11:30 am on Friday for Mass and we stayed later on Sunday until the end of vespers.

During the weekend, we missed a couple of activities so we could take a nap, but regretted our decision to miss anything. The solution is to go to sleep soon after the start of the Grand Silence instead of staying up and talking in our room. But each day’s schedule was so interesting we wanted to go over each detail again.

As can be seen from the schedule, a main characteristic of a retreat is to follow the daily divine offices with the monks of the abbey. I cannot over emphasize the significance of this feature. The divine offices hold the day together. The divine offices lead us through the day. All retreat activities during the weekend are illuminated by the light from the divine offices.

It was a wonderful retreat.