Home again . . .

Back home again after a really good weekend retreat.

We had all the essential ingredients for a successful retreat as far as our Team is concerned:

A very comfortable retreat centre run by excellent staff who couldn't do enough for us;

Delicious food and plenty of it -

important so that we can concentrate on the 'higher things of life' :-) ;

Some spiritual 'input' from a chaplain;

Plenty of time for personal prayer and reflection plus time together as a couple;

Mass each day and Prayer of the Church as a group;

The opportunity for Confession;

Some time to socialise as a group;

Time for a walk and reasonable weather plus good walks nearby;

This year's retreat was at a very relaxed pace which was good for everyone as we all needed time to wind down, some of us more than others.

As Saturday was the Feast of St Benedict we decided to take this as our theme for the retreat and Fr Richard Lear, chaplain at The Emmaus Centre, gave us a very interesting talk on Benedictine Spirituality including recommending some further reading. We had also all taken along a copy of Abbot Christopher Jamison's latest book, Finding Happiness' for our own personal reading and group discussion.

The centre has a well-stocked library and also some books for sale so there was no shortage of reading matter.

We were lucky with the weather too and most of us managed to have a good walk on Saturday morning after Mass.

Home again after lunch today to pick up the threads of life at home, with work and families, but definitely refreshed to tackle everything with new vigour . . . and we have already begun thinking about next year's retreat.

Our Team's Retreat . . .

Just a couple of days to go till our Team's Retreat. I mentioned before that it had been quite a task to actually find a weekend when all 5 couples in our Team (Teams of Our Lady) were all available at the same time to make our annual retreat. Nevertheless, it's such an important part of our Team life that we all feel it's worth persevering and we managed to fix a date in the end - we're off on Friday evening to the Emmaus Centre in West Wickham.

We'll all make our own way there and meet before supper. Most of us won't be able to get there much before that due to work/school commitments but despite the hectic rush to get there, I know from past experience that once we arrive, all that pressure will fall away as we enter the building. It's quite amazing how getting away from the busy-ness of our daily lives just for a couple of nights makes such a difference to all of us.

We've been in Teams for more than 20 years and we've managed an annual retreat together for most of them. When we began, most of us had fairly young children and they came too, parents took it in turns to attend sessions.

As the children grew up they looked after themselves more and more and just joined us for meals, being happy to amuse themselves in their rooms together or in the grounds of wherever we were making our retreat. I think this year is the first year that we won't have any children with us as even the youngest is now old enough to be left with a friend.

Twice we've managed a Team retreat in France at the Benedictine Convent and Abbey at Bec Hellouin. Those retreats were extra special, I think we'd all agree. Interesting that in French the Convent which is where we stay is referred to as 'Le Monastère'.

Obviously, being on retreat, I won't be blogging but will let you know how we got on when we get back next week.