Fr. Toad's Wild Keyboard
PreLenten Retreat
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.
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This is my year to start Lent early, to Retreat, read and meditate, reflect, and practice -- practice writing. To practice writing concisely. Retreat like the three personal spiritual retreats I took last summer, of self-examination and repentance. Repent as the children show us in the center aisle on Sunday mornings, abruptly turning around and going in the opposite direction. Repent! Turn. Repent! Turn. Repent! Turn. My PreLent Retreat will go as long as seems helpful and may end before anyone else even starts Lent. I'll break Retreat only for agape -- which is to say, for lovingkindness: Sundays, Monday staff meetings, Wednesday Noons & Evenings at Holy Nativity, occasional consultations, and blog posts. Not strictly silent but humbly introspective and corrective.
Retreat starts today, later. This morning I am having breakfast with a classmate, an oldest friend of seventy-one years. We grew up neighbors around Massalina Bayou. He is president of our Cove School class of 1949. Although a 'Nole, he is a godly and talented man who from time to time draws our class together for reunions, feeds us grandly, and makes us feel as one again. So, breakfast first, Retreat later.
What prompts this Retreat is a personal malady of which I am long aware but only sometimes mindful to keep in check. Crudely, it might be called dysentery of the keyboard.
These things motivate my Retreat. My blogposts often become a mindless run-on. Or I write a friend an email that goes on and on and on and on and on. Or a colleague invites me to converse on a subject of mutual interest; and, accepting, I leap enthusiastically into it, typing page after page of nonstop stream of consciousness and pressing "send" to release what looks like a rant of thickheaded obtuseness from a mind of demented confusion. Looking back at what I write, I feel like Mr. Toad's wild ride but driving a typewriter instead of a car. My PreLenten undertaking is to get my madcap typing under control.
These things motivate my Retreat. My blogposts often become a mindless run-on. Or I write a friend an email that goes on and on and on and on and on. Or a colleague invites me to converse on a subject of mutual interest; and, accepting, I leap enthusiastically into it, typing page after page of nonstop stream of consciousness and pressing "send" to release what looks like a rant of thickheaded obtuseness from a mind of demented confusion. Looking back at what I write, I feel like Mr. Toad's wild ride but driving a typewriter instead of a car. My PreLenten undertaking is to get my madcap typing under control.
This very blog post is an e.g. of mindless run-on: I've said too much already. Full stop.
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