Silent Retreats

"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength" Isaiah 30:15

What is a Silent Retreat?
by Don Caldwell

People have been meditating for thousands of years. Monastic orders have held retreats, silent and otherwise, for many centuries. What does a silent retreat have to offer modern Bel Air people in our day and age?

Most of us who are involved in many relationships and are in an active profession get lots of verbal and written input and do a lot of talking. Our working and playing schedules are full the year around. In the midst of all of this, it is hard to hear our own inner thoughts and it is difficult to pay attention to what the Spirit of God wants to say to us. Jesus said to His disciples, "I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things. And he will cause you to recall everything I have told you." The basic motivation of a silent retreat is to structure an opportunity for the Spirit of God to teach us. His teaching can occur in two modes: individually and in community. So we meet in groups, but we spend time alone as we choose.

I've noticed there is usually a definite reason why God "makes an appointment" for us to come aside into a retreat. A number of participants have mentioned that they really had to overcome a lot of schedule conflicts to make it at all. Some are aware of a personal agenda - a need for physical rest, some difficult decisions to be made, hurts to be healed, questions to be answered - or just to be asked. Others have no particular agenda and are just drawn to the experience. I confess that the quiet, the chance to unwind, the leisure to really pray or dwell on a passage of Scripture can be habit forming!

Our retreats always have a leader who sets a theme, provides a few readings or other activities, prepares us for the silence, and is available during the retreat to assist if anyone encounters something in the experience that needs dialog.

At a local retreat we spend Saturday together and usually break the silence after the evening meal. If we wish, we may share something experienced during the retreat. A very striking aspect of this experience for me has been the warmth and closeness of community that develops among brief acquaintances after a few hours of not talking!

Longer weekend retreats at St. Andrew's Priory in Valyermo have been very special. The monks of the Benedictine Order have as their ministry very simple things: prayer and work. Part of their work is the hospitality of providing a place for retreat and meditation. They have been most gracious in sharing the monastery with a group of Presbyterians. On the weekend retreats, we have an opportunity to move about the grounds, the orchards, the pastures, the cemetery, the duck pond, the mountaintops, and the Chinese garden. We dine with the monks in the refectory and are welcome in their services. The longer retreats usually close with a short celebration of worship.

It is God's Spirit who calls us into retreat. "Thus in retreat, after having learned the joy of community life in adoration and prayer, you will realize that the person who comes from going apart to listen to God, receives love for his fellow believers and is ready to work with them in a common mission where each has a place established by God."*

*Introduction to the Spiritual Retreat, Taize Presses, 3rd Edition, translated by the Church of the Savior, Washington, D.C.

The yearly schedule of retreat dates are listed in the Calendar of Events section, the Bel Air Pres publications and in the Sunday Bulletins. Prices for retreats vary according to our costs which are determined by the Retreat Houses.

Details and more information may be obtained by calling the Church Office (818) 788-4200, ext. 147. Also, watch for details and registration dates in the Sunday bulletin and Bel Air Pres newsletter.