This thought came to mind for me last night in a bit of a different way. I was in bed, preparing for sleep, and I turned to prayer. As I lay there, I heard myself saying, “When did I just quit talking to you, Lord?”
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I don’t pray. Gosh, that’s my “business”. I pray all the time. I lead communities in prayer, I celebrate the Mass and other liturgical services, I get asked to pray at all sorts of events, I pray for all sorts of people.
All of that is one type of prayer.
However, when it comes to that simple talk between God and myself, I might be falling a bit short. I have been so consumed with projects and the like lately that my prayer life has suffered a bit. The short, spontaneous, “how are you today” kinds of talks with God have been fewer and farther between.
That is another wonderful reason for retreats. It gives us the time that we need to take a good, hard look at our lives and to determine what we need to do in order to be more solid in our daily faith lives.
Today was the last full day of retreat. Tomorrow morning, we will go to morning Mass and return to the retreat house for breakfast. After breakfast, it will be time to pack and to depart. Checkout time is 11:00 a.m. We will stop for lunch, most likely, in Terre Haute and arrive home mid to late afternoon.
This has been a great week. I really appreciate the time that I spend here in prayer. I hope that I am sufficiently recharged so that, when I return to the parish, I will be ready to jump back into the busy schedule. There is a lot that needs to be done these next five weeks as we prepare for the beginning of another school year.
My blog post tomorrow evening will be an “I made it back home” type of post unless something out of the ordinary hit us on the way home. 🙂
