So my stuff is loaded and I\u2019m spending a few moments writing this, and then a last little while in the basilica praying. The basilica is an amazing room, and I love being there \u2013 so I usually break retreat by spending some quiet time in that space. Then I head home (or in this case \u2013 to meetings).<\/p>\n
Breaking retreat is always a little bitter sweet: I get to go see my family tonight, but I know that the soul work I\u2019ve done here is incomplete\u2026 nothing I can do about that. <\/p>\n
The final step in breaking retreat is to refuse to evaluate. <\/p>\n
People will ask me, \u201cHow was your study leave,\u201d and I\u2019ll try to describe it honestly. But I try not to evaluate the time. The reason I can\u2019t evaluate is that I won\u2019t know for at least a couple of years how this retreat went. Soul work is measured in decades, not in days and hours. There\u2019s nothing I could say in evaluation of these four days at the abbey that would come close to a fair assessment. It\u2019s just too early. I have to leave satisfied that I was faithful in coming, faithful in retreating, and now faithfulness in leaving means I can\u2019t evaluate.<\/p>\n
I leave today with a sense of gratitude that I get to be a pastor and serve my little church of ragamuffins. I pray that I will do right by them, because I love them all so much. I\u2019m so grateful that they want their pastor to go away and pray, and work on the condition of his soul. I pray that I will not let them down; that I will always have the discipline and courage to creep to the edge of the abyss on my belly, stare deeply into the face of God; and the imagination to come home and tell my friends what I have seen. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So my stuff is loaded and I\u2019m spending a few moments writing this, and then a last little while in the basilica praying. The basilica is an amazing room, and I love being there \u2013 so I usually break retreat by spending some quiet time in that space. Then I head home (or in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,15],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conception-abbey","tag-retreat"],"yoast_head":"\n