Tonight my monastery begins its annual retreat. So I won’t be replying to any comments or e-mails for the next five days. In explanation of the curious fact that monastic communities go on retreat one can take what St Benedict says on Lent, mutatis mutandis:
Although a Monk’s life ought at all times to resemble a continual Lent, yet because few have such virtue, we exhort all in these days of Lent to live in all purity, and during this holy season to wash away all the negligences of other times. (Regula Benedicti 49)
