We recently participated in an oblate retreat at Mt. Angel Abbey. Here is the funny thing about that. Usually when you complete a retreat like this, the experience begins to fade when you leave. That has not happened this time. Reflection has caused me to see new and deeper dimensions that I did not really appreciate at the time. Let me try to explain a little about what I mean. I have always appreciated things that are timeless and eternal. Things like rivers that not only flow now but have flowed and will flow for a millennium. The journey from mountain top to sea never ceases and every time you return to the river, it is same as it as it was before but it is completely different. There is not one single drop of water that is the same as before. Also think about the tides that rise and fall in a daily rhythm. I had never experienced anything human that could approach the timelessness of the tide until I waded into the cycle of hours in the abbey. Daily prayer has gone on for 1500 years in monasteries throughout Christendom. The faces of the monks may change and maybe even the language may change but rhythm of prayer continues. I now have a much better understanding of this thing that we do called liturgy of the hours. To read daily prayer is to step into the river where it flows into the sea and to begin to experience the sense of eternity found there.
