MONKS ON RETREAT

13 Aug 2021

Every year the Monastic Community takes five days for its community retreat. We normally think of going away for a retreat, and there is much to be said for going to a monastery or another place for this purpose, but monastic communities usually stay in their own monastery and invite a speaker to come to direct the retreat.

We stay here for the retreat (at least in part) as a reminder that this monastery, with these monks, is the place where we are to seek God and we do not need to go somewhere else to engage in that important quest. Rather we need to remind ourselves that we can, and do, find God in our own home, with our own brethren.

This year our retreat is being preached by Abbot Xavier Perrin, the Abbot of Quarr Abbey, of the Solesmes Congregation, on the Isle of Wight. You can hear his homily at the conventual Mass here