From 10-16 July 2017 Margaret Rose McSparran CP and Anne Harnett CP facilitated a summer retreat at Drumalis Retreat Centre in Larne, Co Antrim entitled Glimpses into the Mystery of the Unfolding Universe. Gráinne Doherty, one of the participants, provied ECI with the report below. Gráinne will be facilitating the annual spring conference in Drumalis 23-25 February 2018. The Glimpses Journey will continue 24-30 June 2018.
At a certain point, you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world
Now I am ready.
Now I will stop and be wholly attentive,
You empty yourself and wait,
Listening…
(Annie Dillard)
Isn’t it wonderful how certain words seem to touch our very essence at times? The above words spoke to me through a presentation on the first morning of a recent retreat, and were to form and centre me for the remainder of my retreat week.
The retreat was in Drumalis, Larne, Co. Antrim in mid-July and I was there at the encouragement of a very perceptive friend who had intuited, better than I did myself, how much I needed it. If you’ve ever been to Drumalis, you will know how true the first line of the above reflection is – in its beautiful setting, the woods, the sea, the mountains are all instantly accessible… (not to mention, the world, of course) … and they all make it very easy to wait and listen… It was the perfect location for a retreat titled ‘Glimpses into the Mystery of the Unfolding Universe’. Some people may be familiar with its style and format as it was a continuation of previous Glimpses retreats in the past couple of years – all of which have been organised and facilitated by two Cross and Passion Sisters (Anne Harnett and Margaret Rose McSparran) along with three Sisters of Mercy (Nellie, Dolores and Coirle).
Although the booking form emphasised that participation in the previous retreats wasn’t essential, I was still a bit apprehensive that it would impact in some way. I needn’t have worried – the team was gifted in their ability to present the whole retreat in a way that spoke equally to all present. As every aspect of the week was invitational, participants were able to mould it to their own particular needs each day – choosing to be anywhere on the spectrum from an ambience of quiet to total silence as desired. Surprisingly, for a ‘non-morning’ person like myself, a favourite time was when we gathered before breakfast for silent prayer, as well as loving the prayer outside each day, celebrating the universe and our place within it.
For several present, the idea of exploring our faith journey through the context of the Evolutionary Story of the Universe was completely new. The input, prayer and sessions of reflective sharing were all so creatively and gently facilitated that it was both nurturing and energising to re-imagine our Incarnational faith in light of what science is telling us and to remind ourselves that our personal faith-journeys, our church communities and our experience of the divine are always in the process of becoming… of changing… of evolving. All inputs showed the deep wisdom that can be found in every religious tradition when we search, but I found it particularly invigorating to hear anew the writings of some from my own Catholic tradition: “I flame out intense Godly life over the shining fields of corn. I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars. My secret life breathes in the wind and holds all things together soulfully.” (Hildegarde of Bingen)
As well as the creativity and gentle empowering of the facilitators, another thing that made this retreat so special for me was Drumalis itself – the food, accommodation, the staff … The fresh brown scone bread every morning alone, was enough to give thanks to the universe for its many gifts!
I finish with part of a well-known poem of Mary Oliver’s that really affirms my week of ‘glimpsing into the mystery of the unfolding universe’:
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass,
How to kneel down in the grass,
How to be idle and blessed,
How to stroll through the fields
Which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
