Caister Retreat

The poor blog has been a bit neglected in April! Here are some pictures from the Caister Retreat/Conference I went to a couple of weeks ago. Included are pictures of my training incumbent Fr Roger, Canon Martin Warner who welcomed us at St Paul's, and two showing you how to create a lovely chapel out of a holiday camp dance hall! 

The retreat/conference is an interesting mix. It is organized by Bishop Lindsay who is the area Bishop of Horsham in our Diocese, and incidentally the Bishop who ordained me to the priesthood. There is a regular pattern of worship, bible studies, seminars, keynote addresses, and special themed acts of evening worship - and that's before you get on to the chance to socialize in the Bar of an evening. At first sight it seems a somewhat riotous mix - how do you marry a retreat and a conference? The idea that most of us probably have of a retreat is of a silent one in a monastery, coming together only to pray, eat, and hear some addresses. A conference is a more active affair. Yet if the conference is a spiritual one then the retreat and the conference have the same goal - to encourage and feed us in our spiritual lives.

I have come back armed with CDs of talks - all of which can be borrowed  - and some of which will be passed around the PCC. There was for instance a talk about how to make the most of the  Back to Church Sunday initiative. Fr Martin also gave a really excellent talk on the resurrection  and Mary. I also made a new friend - another priest from the Diocese who likes to talk theology!

But for me the heart of the retreat - and what in the end made it for me more of a retreat than a conference - was the hour of meditation in front of the Blessed Sacrament which lay at the heart of each day. It was great to be able to attend worship which I wasn't having to lead, and to hear somebody else's sermon. But that encouragement to simply be with God was most rewarding. But, an hour! What do you do for an hour? I find that for me the thing to do is to break it down.

First I said midday prayer. Then I prayed silently, prostrating myself on the ground before the presence of God with us in the sacrament. Then I did some spiritual reading, a few pages at a time of Pope Benedict's letter God is Love, which is a lovely meditation on this theme. (It's available free on the internet here.) Then I prayed the rosary. This is when I found that just as I was beginning to think of the people I wanted to pray for at this point the hour had proved to be too short, as there were the hymns and blessing that make the final act of adoration. For that encouragement to prayer alone the retreat was worthwhile. Why not come along on the next retreat or pilgrimage we organize as a parish?