Either fire or fire

I went on a very good retreat this weekend, at Little Gidding, home of Nicholas Ferrar's community in the seventeenth century and inspiration for the last of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets. It was led by Richard Carter, who was chaplain to the Melanesian Brotherhood at the time of the murder of seven of its young members. (You can read here his message to the Anglican Communion at that time.) It was an excellent retreat; it made me a little confused, but sometimes confusion is a step forwards (she says hopefully).

Anyway one of my favourite things about retreats is being in silence with other people. It reminded me that this is one of the things I like most about going to the cinema. You sit in a large group with no expectation of speaking or having particular attention to paid to you; you are still and quiet and all concentrated on the same thing. It's very soothing, and I think this may be why I am unfortunately prone to sleeping in cinemas instead of watching the film. It's one of the reasons why sitting eating dinner on trays before the TV as a family is quite unfairly denigrated by people who think it's contributing to the decline of society; it is a way to be with your family which can easily be more productive than trying to talk to them. (Especially if there are teenagers involved.)

Of course it's a bit different on a religious retreat, as when you eat breakfast in silence together or sit quietly in the dark after compline the idea is to be still before God as well as each other. I wish it were possible for me to do it more often -- I wish we did it more in church. Maybe I should join the Quakers.