I cannot get over what a great day today was!! I got up at
5:30A.M. (Yes...I did just A.M. and not P.M. which I'm sure my family is
shocked about!) Started the day with morning prayer and Lauds. We had breakfast
and afternoon prayer. Claudina led a discussion on the history, politics, and
social environment of Kenya which was fantastic and so interesting! In the
afternoon, Br. Tobias led the group project for today. He had Kate and I
priming the infirmary while Harris and Henry were outside fixing benches.
At mass, Abbot had a great homily talking about the allegory from
Ezekiel that compared God to a prince and Israel to a princess. However, what
really stood out for me is what he said about authentic love. Basically what I
got out of the homily is this..."Authentic love requires
sacrifice...Sometimes we have to let the person you love go be who God is
calling them to be." As a hopeful romantic, this really struck me and was
just a great confirmation of how important it is to follow God's calling and to
trust Him with your life (especially your relationships!!).
After mass we had dinner and Vespers. Br. Elias who will be giving
us a series of talks on the Benedictine monastic life and spirituality led a
discussion about the importance of the psalms which was really great! He talked
about how important the psalms are and how they are a great source of
consolation for any situation you are in- whether you are happy, sad, angry,
fearful, etc. The psalms help us not only to help us to sing praise to God, but
they also help us understand our emotions and where we are in our lives.
All in all, today was such a great day and I am looking forward to
what the rest of this retreat brings! :)
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