May 11, 2014

May 11, 2014

   All Photos are mine unless otherwise noted. All images in this post were taken at the Eastern Point Retreat House. All poetry is also mine.

   To see photos full screen click on any image.

    Back from an eight day retreat at the Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester Mass. a house run by the Jesuits who do this work really well. The retreat was in silence which has the effect of focusing one's attention away from the busyness of the world and the constant bombardment of information others deem necessary for our well being, or for the ad revenue well being of their bottom line. I did not look at a newspaper or listen to the news at all and to my satisfaction since I returned I really did not miss very much. The media for the most part focuses on the "Oh my God!" factor which has gotten more than annoying for me these days. 

   This retreat house sits on the Atlantic Ocean and when Lee and a friend from where we live also went with us got there a storm was in progress which made for a most auspicious start to the week. Retreats of this sort have a cycle for me which has me in a state of vague confusion to begin with for a day or so as the silence takes a while to permeate the senses. 

   Sensing God's Voice, so to speak, I wrote in my journal what I was receiving,

     "I will not grant you rest,
          until I have rested in you.
       I will not will not give you My Peace,
          until you have found peace in yourself." 

   So after a day or two a sense of equnimity did settle in as it always does and the retreat became just that, a retreat from busyness and constant doing.

   Here is the website for the house:    https://www.easternpoint.org/

The view from the rocky shore in the rear of the house.

This is the rear of the house. 

Built in 1921 as a private residence and given to the Jesuits later on.

"I am the Light to show you the path to Me in you,

I, who illuminates those darkened hearts who turn back to Me.

When night is over, and morning comes,

You, My beloved, are the flame to light the candle of  My New Day."

Seeing into one's own nature,

the Nature of the heart,

The seasons of the interior life

are not to be explained by the intellect,

only to be known by the direct experience 

of the affairs of God within.

Nature seen wherever we travel,

is the same as our inner experience of God's creations.

   The famous fir tree of Eastern Point, photographed, painted, and even sung about by some. Standing by the ocean it has been since a seed, it was this healthy since I first saw it around eight years ago. Many sit under her branches in the reclined chairs that are ever present here. Here is my take on this icon.

Spring arrived with a few flowers as herald for the Season

At the pond on one side of the retreat house,

a mallard duck, belly full from the mornings feasting

was seen taking a nap in a well balanced moment.

Taken at 4:45 in the morning, the view from the window in my room.

      One last "Postcard" with the red roof of a meditation room next to a labyrinth a short distance away from the house. 

Some humor:

   Until next week,

           Peace, Bill Lagerstrom