A Pause for Silence

From this evening through Sunday morning, I'm going to be participating in a silent Lenten retreat at the cathedral. We'll be returning home to sleep both nights, but will spend the rest of the time in silence except for some talks that will be given on the retreat's theme -- Jacob wrestling with the angel -- and those biblical texts, and the daily offices. We'll be eating all our meals together, but in silence, or with perhaps with some texts read aloud. I haven't done an Anglican silent retreat for a long time, and it's going to be interesting; I am much more the Buddhist type when it comes to meditation and contemplation and I suspect that the difficulty for me will be not with the silence, which I usually find fruitful, open, and helpful, but with the community, many of whom are not accustomed to silence at all. I'm also not used to meditating on scripture - so that's going to be interesting too.

We shall see; I go with an open mind and every intention for patience and calmness -- without cell phone or laptop -- and with a pencil and notebook.