Parish Retreat

May 1st. Labour Day. Holiday. Parish Retreat!

What's a Parish Retreat? Well here's some reference from one of my favourite sites nowadays, http://dictionary.reference.com.
Parish - an ecclesiastical district having its own church and member of the clergy.
Retreat - a retirement or a period of retirement for religious exercises and meditation.

I was invited by Raphaela to attend this Parish Retreat held annually by her Catholic Church, Church Of Saint Anthony Of Padua. Most of you will know that I'm a Christian, so may be thinking, "Christian? Going to a Catholic event?". Well, though I knew it's an event organised by a Catholic Church, I knew too that it's the same God and the same Saviour we're worshiping, hence it dint bothered me too much. hehe..

It'll be a very long story if I elaborate on every single detail, and I know not all readers are gonna have the patience to run along with me, so I'm gonna cut the whole story shorter(could have been much longer than this ok!). I'm not going to miss out the important details that made this Parish Retreat one of the best holidays that I've experienced so far this year though. *winkZ*

That morning was cool with slight drizzles. The time was 6am(I must add that it was a bit too early for me, considering that I slept at 1:30am!). Everything seems to be perfect for sleep. hehe.. Pulled myself together, got ready, and went to meet up with Raphaela for the first time in months. We took a bus and headed off to her church in woodlands. The people there were warm to each other, though I'm not quite used to that culture(yet!). From there, we took another bus to a "secluded" church, which was probably the mother church of the one we went from.

Praise and worship got started very early that day, much earlier than my usual 11:15am service on Sunday. It was a good warm up though. Priest Terence took over right after and began a a session of what I would call as "silence practice". We were to keep quiet, close our eyes, and not to think about anything. The objective was to be able to dominate our brain rather than the other way around.

It was so hard! Other than stopping my brain from running in circles with thoughts, I had to combat the sleepiness that still lingered on. Had to try very hard to calm my heart and mind down, and yet stay awake. It was no mean feat.

After the second try, it was peace that got onto me. I never did practice the art of controlling my brain, which was the whole purpose of the silence practice. In that 20 minutes or so of silence, I was able to completely void my brain of thoughts, which was coupled with a strange feeling(slight numbness at the back of my head). No thoughts, nothing. Being at peace with God was a magical feeling.

After that, Priest Terence continued to talked about God's Word, about how people in church naturally formed tribes and kept to their own groups. In his effort, he made us mix around and sit with people whom we don't know. For me it wasn't such a difficult task, since I've always attended church alone. :D Listening to Priest Terence had also been pretty easy too, the lively way he spoke, the energised tone, and not to mention the wacky jokes he made, allowed me to overcome my lack of sleep. :P

The next high point of the day was actually really simple. We were given some time to read the letter of John. To be exact it's the book "1 John". Raphaela and I headed out to the garden and spent some quiet time there, reading God's Word. It's another first for me, when I felt nothing else excepted the anointed atmosphere of God all around me.

I feasted on the Word, it was peaceful. The greens in the garden, it was peaceful. The gentle wind, it was peaceful. Having God around, without the distractions of the everyday life, it was peaceful. Recalling the scene of quiet time now brings back an unusual sense of peacefulness into my heart which can't be explained. *float*

It was a day without technology, without computer, without work, without internet, without games, without phone calls, without sms, without distraction, without ambition, without competition, without pride and without self.

All I had was the bible in my hand, and God in my heart.

That was sufficient, and it proved to be much better than the endless things that I was chasing in my everyday life. The retreat ended with my heart rejuvenated, invigorated, and ready for God.

Many thanks to you, Raphaela, for the invite to the Parish Retreat, for I really enjoyed myself that day. Though I'm not used to the Catholic Church culture for the most parts, the important thing was that I felt God. :)