Monday, January 25, 2016

Retreat!



We're advancing in a different direction, which means getting on I35E and driving to Montserrat Retreat House for the annual diocesan clergy retreat. You need a retreat after that drive, I tell you.



I was hoping for some quiet fishing off Montserrat's pier but it's underwater. Well, there's no telling where, when and how The Weather will strike in its vicious no-holds-barred war on humanity. Just look at New York, all that tax money and they still got hit by several feet of Climate Change.




So maybe there won't be any fishing, but there will be some Chesterton, The Crimes of England. I'm looking forward to that.

More anon, as the story unfolds.

LSP


6 comments:

LL said...

Enjoy your retreat.

I have never been to a religious retreat and suspect that if I ever showed up, I would not be invited to return (ever).

To me, a retreat is sort of a Camp Snoopy for adults: Flying, skydiving, waterskiing, fishing, hunting (birds, big game, varmints), motorcycle rides on and off road, etc. I'm not opposed to an all guy event (sausage fest) but it's better if attractive, nubile women who can't really handle their liquor are also present.

See, padre, I'm well beyond redemption.

LSP said...

I think you need to organize a retreat, LL.

LL said...

You would be invited to an LL retreat, but I don't think that most of the Priestly class would allow themselves to have fun. I mean what if an arch cannon or bishop was knocked off his horse when conducting saber practice on the quatrain? And HOW (pray tell) can they ride a horse wearing religious clothing?

LSP said...

I think there's have to be some relaxation of the dress code. Come to think of it, there's precedent for cavalry bishops. Odo springs to mind. I think he favored a mace.

Mattexian said...

Jan Zizka favored a mace, when he led to Hussite armies. I find myself firmly in the camp of the Ultraquists, as I can't fathom how the clergy could justify denying the Blood of Christ to the masses (or, more accurately, I don't agree with how they rationalized the practice). From the Wikipedia article, I find it interesting that a statue of Zizka is the third largest bronze equestrian statue in the world.

LSP said...

I get the feeling, Mattexian, that communion in one kind, for the people, was practical, both in terms of cost and manners. For example, the peace/pax was ceremoniously shared in the Middle Ages with a "pax bread", which was passed from one congregant to another. In simple churches this was made of pottery or wood, in more affluent churches of precious metal. All well and good until rougher congregants would use the "peace bread" to hit other members of the congregation, and the custom fell out of use.

Imagine the potential for mischief with a chalice of consecrated wine...