G ree t i n gs G od, w e h av e re c ei v ed y o u r m er c y i n t h e m i d st of y o u r t e m p l e Peace be with you. On behalf of Abbot James and the monks of this monastery welcome to your retreat at St. Benedict’s Abbey. This booklet will give you a brief orientation to the day to day life of the monastery which we invite you to participate in, as you desire, during your retreat. But first we may ask, what does it mean to “go on retreat”? Jesus himself would “often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16). Why? Certainly not to flee what was before him, but to love it more, by staying with the Father who gave it to Him. So we can say that to retreat, in the Christian sense, is not to escape but to enter more deeply into the truth of things, like taking a step back from a painting in order to see more clearly the whole of its beauty, in which shines the harmony of each part. We are also invited into this relationship: “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). It is only in and through the reality the Father is giving to us hic et nunc (here and now) that we can take up the Jesus’ command to remain in his presence, to stay awake and keep watch, await, and meet the source of our lives, who is our happiness, that is, our destiny.
6 • Remain in Me
