Hi All,

I just returned from a weekend retreat that was led by Ron Rolheiser. It was held at the King's House, which is a retreat center located in Belleville, Illinois. Rolheiser is an Oblate priest, as are the priests who run King's House.

There were around 70 people on the retreat. It was primarily a silent retreat, which wasn't a problem for me, since I didn't know a soul there anyway!

The attendees were mostly women (why I wonder?). Probably half of the women were nuns/sisters. A few men, but not many.

Fr. Rolheiser was a very enjoyable speaker. We listened to six conferences throughout the weekend. Each talk lasted about an hour. He was presenting new material--the basis for his next book, which he plans to call "Insane for the Light--The Search for a Generative Discipleship." Don't ask me to explain what that means, although I have some idea of what it means . I think I most enjoyed Fr. Rolheiser's talk during the Sunday Mass. He talked about the parable of the Prodigal Son, and how that story is about all three characters, but mostly it's about God (do all Canadians pronounce it Gawd???). And he said that God's love is like the sunshine--when it shines, it shines down on all... the faithful and the unfaithful. Because God IS love. I found the sunshine analogy to be very powerful and I was moved. I didn't take any kleenex to Mass, but I should have.

He said that in our "mature" years (most people at the retreat were in their "mature" years) our struggle is like that of the son who stayed home. We become anger and bitter at the unfairness of life. And when we are anger and bitter, we are still "outside" of our father's house. Also very powerful stuff.

This was the first time (since High School) that I attended a retreat with other people and listened to "talks." The last three summers I've done private retreats, where I was bascially in charge of my time. So, in comparison to those, this weekend thing went too quickly, and of course I didn't have enough of my own time. That's OK, though, as I'm doing the private retreat thing again in June.

We were supposed to maintain a "quiet" atmosphere from Friday evening until Saturday evening. Then we were allowed to visit during the Saturday evening meal. Then quiet again until lunch on Sunday (after the Mass). I didn't find this to be a problem. It was actually more difficult to make small talk with a bunch of strangers during the two meals when were were supposed to talk.

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to hear him, I think you would enjoy him. He was a little guy, soft spoken, very down-to-earth, with a good sense of humor and of course, quite brilliant!

I appreciate being able to share a little about the retreat, since nobody in my daily life even knows who he is! So thanks for letting me share!

Anne

Anne, I have had the pleasure of reading some of Rolheiser's thought on the Internet over the years and it was usually something very much worth forwarding! So, I'm jealous

Thanks for sharing your retreat experience. As you move on into your week, if any additional gems or tidbits come to you as a fruit of your retreat experience, I'd count myself blessed to be able to read about them!

pax,
jb

jb,

I failed to mention that at the end of the retreat R. Rolheiser said he would be available to sign books. So, I stood in line and got him to sign two of my books.

Imagine, I got to see Bette Midler AND Ron Roheiser during my 48th year of life! It doesn't get much better than that!

You SHOULD be jealous!!

Anne

The 48th year of my life will be up in a few weeks. I'd better get on the ball if I'm going to keep up with you, Anne! But, seriously, what are my chances? I'm just Member #31 at Shalomplace, while you're #3 ... I wonder who #2 is?????

Who is member #2? Only your friendly Board Admin. knows for sure!

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Glad to hear the retreat went so well, Anne. Thanks for sharing your experience of it with us. Sounds like Fr. Rolheiser is a good retreat director, and that there are more good books coming from him soon. He's already made some nice contributions!