VBS

I totally wrote off last week as far as math, spelling, history, or housework. All I planned was to get meals on the table (that included one grocery-run), take Maggie to the beach for a little while daily (30-90 minutes), and go to "VBS" (from about 4:30 to 10:00 by the time the driving and socializing was factored in). We managed that, and not much else! Now I need to catch up on laundry; I only got a few loads done during the week.

VBS was held in the morning for the kids. They worked on memorizing the Lord's Prayer section of the catechism. They studied Bible stories from Holy Week with regard to Jesus' prayers. They learned more of the liturgy by heart, so they'd be able to pray along during Sunday services. Even if I had been able to drive my kids for the morning sessions, they were too old to attend that part anyway. So we just heard about that from some of the older kids who were helping.

The sessions in the evenings were for everybody: one child yet to be born, toddlers and preschoolers, right on up to the senior citizens, including one dear man who was ordained more than 60 years ago.

Each day the prayer retreat started with Evening Prayer. I appreciated my boys' observation that it's awfully hard to SAY the Phos Hilaron (instead of chant it). After prayers, we all ate. Then we prayed the order found in Congregation at Prayer, including Psalm 51, a passage from 1 Cor 10, the Sixth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, What Is the World to Me?, and consecutive readings each night from Acts. Then Pastor had some lecture and some discussion on prayer, and why we pray, and what we pray for, and prayer habits, and the salutary use of prayer books, and some misconceptions about prayer, and looking at some Bible passages on Jesus' prayer life and what He taught His disciples about prayer. When the evening was nearly done, we prayed Compline together.

At the end of the week, Pastor asked for any reflections on all this praying we'd been doing throughout the week. My thought was "Where do I sign up for the family-friendly monastery?" I didn't want the week to be done already. I wonder if it would be possible to have the discipline and the time to fit all that prayer and meditation into daily life. Or is that why a retreat is a retreat: being away from the regular hub-bub of life ... and math books?