{"id":13212,"date":"2016-05-25T14:31:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T21:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=13212"},"modified":"2016-05-25T14:31:36","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T21:31:36","slug":"clergy-wellness-be-still-and-be-filled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/clergy-wellness-be-still-and-be-filled\/","title":{"rendered":"Clergy Wellness: Be Still and Be Filled"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Linda Weistaner<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I went on my first silent retreat around ten years ago with a group of 15 others.\u00a0 The retreat began with the leaders, Benedictine sisters from The Monastery of St. Gertrude, near Cottonwood, Idaho, making introductions and offering a brief orientation.\u00a0 Then, with a blessing, we were dismissed to observe the Great Silence. For the sisters, the Great Silence ended after Morning Prayer the next day.\u00a0 For those of us on retreat, the silence lasted a full week.<\/p>\n

Some of us paused our silence for daily spiritual direction.\u00a0 My director\u2019s gentle questions and prayer were valuable; thanks to her I remained on solid ground while I navigated the unfamiliar and stunning terrain of a silent retreat.\u00a0 She encouraged me to be still in the silence and simply consent to be in God\u2019s presence.\u00a0 Avoid filling up your time and space, she said; no multi-tasking on retreat.<\/p>\n

This is great advice, but even after seven or so retreats, I find it difficult to practice.\u00a0 With each retreat, I get better at not filling up my time and space, but I have made some notable mistakes.\u00a0 Like the time I brought all the piles of curriculum samples, magazines, and mail that had been sitting on my desk for months; what a great opportunity to sift through the stacks and finally figure out what to do with them, I thought.\u00a0 As a retreat plan, this was a soul killer.<\/p>\n

Once I brought War and Peace<\/a> by Leo Tolstoy to read, just for fun.\u00a0 I got two-thirds of the way through it for the second time in my life.\u00a0 I sensed God telling me that it was time to let go of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy, and for that matter, Russian literature altogether.\u00a0 Brushing up on the classics is not the best use of silent retreat time.<\/p>\n

On one of my retreats, I got sick.\u00a0 For a month I looked forward to a life-changing, silent retreat and all I got was a bad cold.\u00a0 I guess it was a safe place for my overtired body to say, \u201cEnough!\u201d\u00a0 I stayed in my room and rested.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember much about that one.<\/p>\n

When my focus shifted from filling up my time to consenting to be in God\u2019s presence, great things happened. \u00a0 Several years ago, I brought only my Bible, no other books, and read through the Hebrew Scriptures.\u00a0 I sat in a recliner with a lap quilt, reading my Bible, watching the snow fall on the Camas Prairie and dozing now and then.\u00a0 Pure bliss: relaxing with Scripture and having time to let it sink in.\u00a0 This is what my spiritual director was talking about: being filled by God, not simply filling up my time.\u00a0 It was very good.<\/p>\n

One time I brought an art project to my retreat, fashioning it over a week\u2019s time.\u00a0 Other retreatants saw it and referred to it as a visual and tactile experience of creation and renewal.\u00a0 That was nice.\u00a0 If you ever go on a silent retreat, by all means, bring your art, but avoid projects that will distract from peace and solitude.\u00a0 The kind of projects that make you scream with frustration, for example, should stay home.<\/p>\n

Silent retreats may not be for everyone, but I like them.\u00a0 They are necessary for my spiritual and physical well-being.\u00a0 I\u2019m already planning my next silent retreat.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned my lesson: I will not bring too much to do or read, lest I be tempted to fill up time and space instead of allowing myself to be filled by God.\u00a0 I will bring my Bible, my journal, and maybe a little recreational reading; but no Tolstoy, no piles of mail.\u00a0 And I will bring an open heart.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the most important thing of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Linda Weistaner I went on my first silent retreat around ten years ago with a group of 15 others.\u00a0 The retreat began with the leaders, Benedictine sisters from The Monastery of St. Gertrude, near Cottonwood, Idaho, making introductions and offering a brief orientation.\u00a0 Then, with a blessing, we were dismissed to observe the Great Silence. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":11751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[475,93],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-clergy-wellness","8":"category-devotional"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/clergy-wellness-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C586&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3r6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13217,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13212\/revisions\/13217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}