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Retreat

Perhaps surprisingly for an extrovert, I have found going on retreat to be an extremely helpful aid to prayer.  'Retreat' usually involves being somewhere quiet (eek) without any other people (aagh) or alternatively with people you aren't allowed to talk to (gasp).  Every time I've been on a retreat which has involved an overnight stay I have always arranged to meet with a retreat guide - i.e. someone you are allowed to talk to while you're there, but only for a set amount of time, and then you have to shut up and go away.

The best retreats I've experienced have been at St Cuthbert's Centre, a United Reformed church on Holy Island.  They have a bothy (that's a very small, simple room or flat designed for one person) which you can book, and basically hole up for a few days.  Holy Island is packed with tourists when the tide is out, but there are very few places to stay on the island, so they all go home before the tide comes in, and then you're on your own.  Almost literally; I used to go for walks when the tide was in and I didn't see a single soul.  You can do the extrovert thing and pray out loud, and only the sheep can hear you.

On retreat, all you have for company are God and your own thoughts (plus maybe some sheep), and it can be quite hard to tell between them.  Is this a great insight from Jesus or just a random firing of neurons in my brain?  Worries and fears rise to the surface without the distractions of everyday life to drown them out.  Personally I can't just sit and meditate, or spend a day thinking about one psalm - I have to do something a bit more creative.  I learned about Ignatian meditation a few years ago and I've found that can be really powerful.  You basically read a story from the Bible and then imagine yourself into it, asking yourself what you can see, hear, smell, what you feel, which character you are drawn to, what happy or uncomfortable thoughts the story leaves you with.  I've made collages on retreat before, too, using pictures cut out of magazines to illustrate a verse from the Bible and help me 'meditate' on its meaning.  I've never had any blinding flashes of inspiration.  I've simply spent a few days trying to listen to God, feeling that I'm not doing very well, and then remembering that he is quite capable of speaking to me despite my restless personality (which he understands), and that maybe I should stop giving myself such a hard time.  

The guide produced by the Retreat Association provides info about dozens and dozens of retreat centres all over the country - I highly recommend it.  Actually, I probably should get an up-to-date one myself, because it's been a while since my last retreat...

http://www.retreats.org.uk/retreatsjournal.html

http://www.holyisland-stcuthbert.org/

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