Humorous insights from retreatants

[Mark Dohle]

Humorous insights from retreatants​

Once in awhile when talking to a retreatant they will relate to me an insight that they received that is both profound and funny. I was talking to a young man, I will call him Steve. He told me that when he came on Monday he wanted to ‘get it’, and then go back home changed, healed and in control. He related that as the days went on he became more and more distressed because events weren’t going the way he wanted them to. So on Thursday after mass, he was complaining to the Lord about how bad things were going. Then he stopped looked at me and said the strangest thing happened. “I got this insight, not in words but as if it were downloaded into my brain”. He continued. “What I got was this. ‘Steve, you see these monks, well they are here for a lifetime, that’s right, a lifetime, and you expect to achieve whatever is you think you want in four days?’ “. He laughed and said “it was such a relief for me to hear that, or perceive it on some level. So I came here wanting to be in control and leaving knowing that it will take time, a lifetime of growth and struggle and beginning again”. As he was leaving the room, he said: “I can live with that”.--Br.MD

 

[Michie]

Love it.

 

[icxn]

Straight out of the textbook:

A brother lived in the Cells and in his solitude he was troubled. He went to tell Abba Theodore of Pherme about it. The old man said to him, 'Go, be more humble in your aspirations, place yourself under obedience and live with others.' Later, he came back to the old man and said, 'I do not find any peace with others.' The old man said to him, 'If you are not at peace either alone or with others, why have you become a monk? Is it not to suffer trials? Tell me how many years have you worn the habit?' He replied, 'For eight years.' Then the old man said to him, 'I have worn the habit seventy years and on no day have I found peace. Do you expect to obtain peace in eight years?' At these words the brother went away strengthened.​

 

[Mark Dohle]

Straight out of the textbook:

A brother lived in the Cells and in his solitude he was troubled. He went to tell Abba Theodore of Pherme about it. The old man said to him, 'Go, be more humble in your aspirations, place yourself under obedience and live with others.' Later, he came back to the old man and said, 'I do not find any peace with others.' The old man said to him, 'If you are not at peace either alone or with others, why have you become a monk? Is it not to suffer trials? Tell me how many years have you worn the habit?' He replied, 'For eight years.' Then the old man said to him, 'I have worn the habit seventy years and on no day have I found peace. Do you expect to obtain peace in eight years?' At these words the brother went away strengthened.​

Growth is unending, always beginning, yet going deeper in to the heart of God.

Peace
Mark