Sweet silence, and Bach

As I am packing my suitcase for a trip to Annapolis and Baltimore, I have found an acorn tucked into a corner of the bag. It was a keepsake from last weekend's inspiring retreat at The Monastery of the Holy Cross, an Anglican Benedictine monastery on the west bluff of the Hudson River just south of Kingston, NY. We spent the weekend alternating between silence and Bach's Jesu, meine Freude, and sinking into the rhythm of fixed-hour prayer that pulses through the brothers' days. It was a privilege to be there, and a great gift.

Our retreat was led by my congregation's vicar, Canon Pastor Victoria Sirota, who is also a musician with an international career as an organist. I will be thinking deeply about the retreat for a long while to come, and intend to follow Rev. Sirota's suggestion to use Bach as a spiritual director as I start to polish several more movements from his suites for unaccompanied cello.

Here is a photo, taken at the retreat by Hal Weiner. An icon of surrender: leaf accepting gravity.

Photo (c) Hal Weiner, www.halweiner.photoworkshop.com