taizé

May 10th, 2007 | family, friends, good stuff, life, monastery, peace, worship | chris | 2 comments

last sunday evening deeann, ren and i went to a taizé service at old brick in iowa city.  wow.  it was amazing in so many ways.

for those who aren’t familiar to taizé worship check out this site (in fact, check out a post ren had on taize too).  it is a simple worship setting using taizé chants and simple hymns sung over and over in various languages with many moments of silence and contemplation.  with a simple piano playing chord progressions and a group of voices echoing off the walls of old brick it was quite humbling.  nothing is rushed.  they go from honest prayers, to songs, to more prayers, with no rushing or clammoring.

set aside the beautiful way of taizé worship, it couldn’t have come at a better time.  deeann’s grandmother, alma, passed away last friday.  death is a very mysterious thing.  as relieving as it can be to know that grandma is now at peace, it is never easy to say goodbye to such a beautiful and important person.  during this service there was roughly 10 minutes of complete silence.  it was an amazing thing to reflect on the events that occurred in the days prior to this.  both deeann and i left this service refreshed and at peace.

the silence is broken

March 18th, 2007 | direction, good work, life, monastery, road trip | chris | 0 comments

Well, I got back Saturday morning from St. Mary Monestary. What an experience.

The monestary is surrounded by complete beauty. It sits on 80 acres on the top of a hill completely surrounded by trees and a lake. It’s a newly built monestary however this group of sisters have been around a while. In the last 5 years they relocated from Nauvoo, Illinois to Rock Island.

It was amazing to me the pace of life they lead. When I arrived it took some time for me to get used to slowing down. The pace and rhythm of life is very slow, yet quite intentional. Everything that is done, is done with purpose. I happen to be their only guest at the time, which made for very lonely nights. Guests normally stay in the Benet House which is their guest house. Wonderful facilities, but very vacant when you’re the only one there. Needless to say I had plenty of time to think things over and just spend time in meditation and contemplation. One of the more beautiful parts about my stay was being able to simply sit and write, to have enough time to write thoughts, think, and complete(or not) the thought. I’m so easily distracted that I’m normally not able to really think.

Anyway, it was a beautiful stay. As challenging as it was, I will definitely be doing it again. If your interested in more, ask; otherwise check out the pictures.

spring break

March 14th, 2007 | direction, life, monastery, road trip | chris | 0 comments

so today i’m headed off for spring break.  not to sunny florida or beautiful cancun.  no, i’m driving myself over to st. mary monastery in rock island, illinois for a bit of a get away.  from today until saturday morning i’ll be alone with a bunch of sisters.  can’t wait!

i’m hoping to not only get some time alone and in quiet but i’ve really missed writing.  every time i sit down to write i feel that i’m distracted and quickly pulled away.  hopefully this will get at the root of the problem; rid myself of all distractions so i have nothing else to do but write.  deeann and i are also at a point where we’re trying to make difficult decisions and just can’t make them — we’ll see what comes of that.

all in all, i’m really hoping for some direction in the next few days.  i trust i’ll find it.