Retreat!

This weekend some three dozen St Timothy's ladies are going on retreat.  I must admit I smile when I use the word 'retreat.'  Are our ladies running from the battlefield?  Are they throwing in the white flag, sounding the bugle, and getting out of Dodge?  I have the same image when the vestry goes on retreat.  Can we no longer handle leadership in the church so we are escaping from the demands and work of shepherding God's people?

 

I took a little stroll over to Merriam Webster and discovered three definitions for retreat.  The first is the white flag waving, bugle sounding, running from the battlefield type.  The second is a place of refuge, and the third is a period of group withdrawal for prayer, reflection, and meditation.  Obviously our ladies (and the vestry) are exercising the third definition.  Although retreating for prayer, reflection and meditation may be the remedy for the weariness of the battlefield.

 

There is something about space that transports.  When I walk into St Timothy's with the slate floors and the high ceilings, I am conscious of my sound and instinctively I grow quiet.  I can pray, meditate, and reflect better in the church.  That's what I respond to.  My office is populated with icons and crucifixes because when the battlefield is dangerous and I am reaching for the white flag and listening for the bugle, those images help me to retreat – not run away, but run to Christ.

 

Do you have a space like that?  Do you have a place where you can allow your thoughts and emotions to be transported to a higher, more peaceful place?

Pray for our ladies as they go on retreat.  And husbands, ahem, I've been told that the guys and kids take the Sunday off when the retreat weekend comes.  What better way to honor their retreat by coming to a sacred space of your own?  Let us retreat to Christ.

--
Fr. Steve Rice
Rector, St Timothy's Episcopal Church
Winston-Salem, NC
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