May 22

We just led a wonderful retreat with an amazing group of people.  The retreat is about encountering Mary Magdalene, getting inside her story rather than just learning about it.  How well it goes depends on the participants (as is true of any retreat), and this group just soared.  Elizabeth and i came out of it exhausted but wondering, “When do we get to do that again?”  And they were suggesting venues and possibilities.  So stay tuned!

For me the most powerful part is getting to be Mary at the tomb.  I won’t say “playing” Mary; it doesn’t seem like that.  It seems more like Ignatian prayer, getting inside the story with my whole body and heart.  I’ve done this a few times, with Mary and with some other Biblical figures, and I find my desire growing.  I’m thinking of doing it just on my own, without others there, just to get really deeply in touch with Jesus.

What makes a retreat like that work, though, is the willingness of the participants to enter in.  I don’t lead the retreat for myself, and we tell the retreatants that they are there to bring something back to others.  This group totally showed up - minds and hearts, ready to be transformed.  So thank you to all of you who made it what it was!

Tomorrow I return to the monastery for the Making A Difference workshop.   It’s a totally different event, but once again the truth shows up: the workshop is a mutual creation.  We will all be transformed there, opened to new possibilities.  It’s a privilege and a joy to be present for this.

Please keep us all in prayer this week, that the participants and the assistants and the leaders all get renewed in their ministry and desire to serve.  And I will be praying for you to find that same endless well of love.