Greater Boston Chapter Annual Retreat
Last weekend the Greater Boston Chapter held its annual Retreat at the Maryknoll Sisters Watch Hill, RI summer home. They have been doing since almost their inception over 25 years ago. The retreat theme was taken from Margaret Wheatley’s book, What Do You Choose to Be - Facing Reality – Claiming Leadership – Restoring Sanity. Theresa Baldini MM from the Maryknoll Sisters Cloister facilitated the weekend. Her presentation and presence along with interaction from the group made for a profoundly restorative time for everyone. Due to scheduling and the sudden death of a family member, just 9 from the Chapter were able to participate.
Theresa (Terry) helped us to remember that we come to the retreat not so much for insights or for more information but for transformation – to have a dwelling mind, a contemplative mind, not a surface mind, disturbed and distracted by mostly frivolous happenings all around us. It can be a time when unhealed wounds are touched within us through our shared silence and by the sacrament of each other’s presence. It’s also a time of shared meals prepared by each other, quiet walks alongside the southern Rhode Island ocean, a profusion of humor and community prayer. The poem below by Martha Postlewaite, was part of the concluding reflection.
“Do not try to save the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing
in the dense forest of your life
and wait there patiently,
until the song that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world so worth of rescue.”