The Retreat was very, very good indeed. One of the best I've been to. And it has been suggested to me that I've been on more Retreats than the Italian Army. I'm not going to the one in Amarillo though, this last one was instead of it.
The theme of the Retreat was Praying the Hours. The official set of prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church, and the basis of prayer within Christian monasticism.
Vigils, during the night - at midnight with some.
Lauds - Dawn prayer - about 3 am
Prime - or Early Morning - about 6am (but this was discontinued after the Second Vatican Council)
Terce - or Mid Morning - about 9am
Sext - or Midday - the sixth hour - about noon
None - or Mid-Afternoon - about 3pm
Vespers - or Evening Prayer (at the lighting of the lamps, generally 6pm)
Compline - or Night Prayer
At the monastery in Beaumont with Fr Peter and Michael we have Morning Prayer and Vespers in the chapel, then Compline in their house before bed. They may have observed the other times when I wasn't about.
We were given folders so that we can create our own Books of Hours, and everyone else worked on theirs over the weekend, but I think I've got Attention Deficit Disorder, and can't do these things very quickly, or easily. I'm working on it at home though. And I am carefully sorting and collating.
We left Shawnee about 3 o'clock on Friday, Sandra wanted some shopping in the City, then we arrived in time for dinner at 6, and had a session from 7 until bed time. We had a full day on Saturday, leaving about 6, but didn't eat before we left so Sandra and I stopped for a meal at a restaurant chain we like. I think I got home about 8.30.
It was held in the Catholic Pastoral Centre, a lovely building and HUGE, it is the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Oklahoma. If it wasn't so hot the grounds might have been nice to walk around when we had a couple of spare hours in the afternoon.
We had several 'sayings', I suppose you'd call them, which we jotted down. Two which spoke to me were "In the evening of life we shall be judged on love", and another one to ask ourselves was "how well have I loved today". I have long believed that nothing is more important than love. Money, possessions, material success, pale into insignificance compared to how much we love.
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