Holy Week Pt. 1

The first 3days of Holy week (i.e. the week before Easter) we've had a Priest in from another diocese leading a retreat which he titled 'The Lazareth Life'. The first talk was Sunday evening+after this we had to remain in silence until Monday lunchtime! We had 2 talks a day+a Eucharist service,with Compline as well 1evening. From the 4pm Monday talk we had to be silent until the Tuesday 12:00 Eucharist +then silent again Tuesday from 4pm until Wednesday at 4pm!! I found this V. hard but thankfully some students were talking quietly in some places +Dom,Jon+I remained talking in our flat!

Jon+I actually used the quiet evenings to have some relaxing time watching films. 1 evening we watched Snakes on a Plane in the Social Room with Titus+Gregory. The Social Room is a small room with a pool table,a fold-away table tennis table,sofas+a TV. The film wasn't great but it was nice to pass the time as we talked throughout most of it with Titus sharing much about S.A. life with us.

Anyway the talks were about Lazareth (who Jesus raised from the dead)+how we too need to die in certain ways. Personally,as a result I felt the talks from Sunday evening-Wednesday afternoon about death were quite depressing! I also thought the last talk on Weds about rising from the dead was somewhat misplaced+ naive. It was about being thankful+joyful about being resurrected by Christ+I couldn't help thinking that the idea of dieing+rising again is something most Christians already know about,more especially ordinands! It also spoke of joy after you rise with Christ+in reality Christians,the same as non-Christians, do not always experience joy,or feel joyful, throughout their life. Indeed,I think this kind of thought can even put some people off religion as they can see that this isn't true as Christians aren't always joyful. As well as this it can add pressure to Christians to feel joyful when they don't which adds to their stress instead of alleviating it.

Nonetheless,I couldn't have done half as good as this myself! And many people here seemed to get a great deal out of this retreat so I think it did hit most people right where they are at. Although most also thought the silence went on too long!