Retreat

Let me just say that the monks at St. Meinrad's must have great calves.



This weekend, the Newman Center at UE went on a retreat at St. Meinrad's Archabbey. The retreat was very nice. St. Meinrad's is a beautiful abbey, and almost all of the buildings were built using stone and wood from the area.


We left Newman at 3:30 Friday afternoon and arrived just before 5:00; in time for evening Vespers with the monks. The service was beautiful in its utter simplicity. It was so quiet and we were lucky enough to share in the service with some Little Sisters of the Poor and several other groups of people.




After Vespers, we walked through the Stations of the Cross. The Stations are set up under the boughs of a stand of trees in a mile long loop that begins and ends at a dedication to Mary. The dedication is a white stone statue of the Virgin that stands out wonderfully from the trees. I'm sure it's gorgeous when the leaves have all turned, as well as in the green of summer. Ending at Mary's feet was a nice and peaceful way to end the Stations.


The rest of the evening was dedicated to our talk on Faithful Citizenship. Most of the talk I didn't really connect to all that well, but it was still good to hear everyone else's views. In any case, we stayed up until close to 1:00 in the morning talking.


Saturday, we had to get up at 7:00 in order to be at Daily Mass at 7:30. Again, the service was very pleasant, especially the chanting. Very calming and peaceful. After Mass was breakfast and then we walked the Rosary. We prayed both the Joyous and Luminous Mysteries on our walk to and from a grotto dedicated to Joesph. The statue of Joesph was fairly large and made from wood that was stained dark (that or it was ebony). From the grotto there was a really nice view of the Archabbey through the trees.


Next we had another talk and then we headed home, stopping by the gift store on our way.

The reason I started with the sentence I started with is because we walked everywhere. Including up and down 4 flights of stairs at least 8 different times. If I had to do that everyday, I'd have pretty muscular calves myself!