When we tell people that we are going on retreat, one of the most frequent questions we receive is, “But isn’t a nun’s life always like a retreat?” This is true in one sense — after all, we spend far more of our time in prayer and silence than is common for even devout Christians in the world. But this intense life of ours requires a great deal of discipline and dedication to sustain, even with the constant help of God’s grace, and we also have lots of “mundane” work to do if we want to keep our monastery up and running! The Church, in her motherly wisdom, recognizes that even contemplative nuns need a dedicated time of rest and closeness with God. Therefore, she requires us to make an annual retreat — and we are most grateful for the chance to pull back from “everyday” life for a few days!

One of the special graces of our 8-day retreats is the chance to be more attentive to the little things, to the small and ordinary, yet beautiful and amazing, ways that God shows His love for us. One of the Sisters on our first retreat tried to capture this “retreat-vision” by taking a camera with her on one of her Sunday afternoon walks and snapping photos of the details that caught her attention. We hope you enjoy this little peek into a monastic retreat! (Don’t forget to click the thumbnails to enlarge and read captions!)

In addition to these “ordinary miracles,” retreat can also bring some more unusual surprises … such as the yellow-billed cuckoo Sr. Frances Marie discovered on the last day of her retreat! The poor bird, normally rather reclusive, was lying stunned on the ground after hitting a window. He allowed Sister to gently pick him up and hold him until he regained the strength to fly away. A special little gift from the Lord for one of our avid monastery bird-lovers! (On seeing the picture, several nuns also couldn’t help commenting how appropriate it was for our famously humorous Sister to be holding a cuckoo!)

Thank you for praying for our first group of Sisters during their 8-day retreat! It was an abundantly graced time for all, a chance to come closer to the Love of our life, Jesus. Today the second retreat begins, as the “Marthas” and “Marys” switch roles. Please keep this group of Sisters in prayer as well, as they have their turn “at the feet of the master!”