Here's an interesting question, interesting to me, at least. A lot of my
friends go on retreats to Catholic or Buddhist venues, where they're silent
among others being silent. I live and work by myself and in fact spend many
days saying very little. My favorite travel is solitary walking and
camping. Obviously a lot of people for a lot of millenia have referred
being silent in a crowd. Any ideas?
Mark
At 07:23 PM 11/25/2005, you wrote:
> > 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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