> For several years I've periodically expressed an interest in spending a
> long weekend with the Jesuits (any Order will actually do) and observing
> silence for the allotted time.
> ken
>
I spent over a decade with the Jesuits. The quietest time of the day (for them
individually) was when they were saying their Office, walking slowly up and
down somewhere on schoolgrounds, a little black book in their hands.
The quietest time of my years with them was a retreat for the Sodality of Our
Lady in which I was a saintly leader. I would have been in my early teens. We
hired the beachhouse of the IBVM nuns at a place called Waterman's Bay and had
a complete silent retreat for a week. (That area is now a beachside suburb and
the nuns would have done very-nicely-thank-you out of the sale of their old
ramshackle beachside house.) The silent days were magical. I remember them to
this day some forty years later. I wish for a retreat of my own, and get up
early each morning to have a silent moment with myself and my little black
meditation book ... Otherwise, I'm a gibbering fool who can't keep his mouth
shut in company.
Andrew
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