contemplative, that’s for sure

this weekend Mairead and I spent three days on retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani down in Kentucky. It was pretty much awesome. we feel great. it’s the best retreat we’ve been on all year (the sisters of mercy recommended we not go).

The grounds are huge, and amazing. It’s a really large farm with trails and woods and every so often a statue and chair where you can sit and meditate and pray. the accommodations are incredible, we had our own rooms with bathrooms and showers that were totally spacious. the food was even good, I mean it was simple retreat food but it was tasty. and the silence, not that difficult. I mean, there’s prayer seven times a day, so if you really need to say something there are definite opportunities. also, the retreat master gave three short talks about their way of life and jesus and mary as people so you could go to those, but of course everything was optional.

basically, we prayed, ate, and did spiritual reading, which is what the monks do, except they work. it was a fruitful weekend and we’re sooo happy we went. if you ever have the time, you should go. you have to make your reservation 4 months in advance though if you want a weekend retreat.

also, the monks there support themselves by making and selling fruitcake, fudge, and cheese. they served all these things to the retreatants in a smart marketing move. I of course tried everything. my favorite was the mild cheese. it was fantastic. buttery and delicious. mmmm. the aged and smoked were also good but I couldn’t even eat the pesto. it was gross. the fudge, they have bourbon fudge and regular fudge and I do not actually like alcoholic chocolate so the walnut fudge was my fav. the fruitcake is also too bourbony for me. but not bad.

oh and did I mention it’s actually affordable? it’s a free will offering, not like $150 for crap the way our previous retreats this year have been, not that we paid the $150 bucks but if we had we’d have been pissed. this one we wished we had $150 to give them, but we don’t.