Good to be back among the speaking. I spent the weekend at a silent men's retreat at Manresa House in Convent, Louisiana, being quiet and getting a bit closer in my walk with the Almighty. I do this yearly, along with my father and (sometimes) my brother. Manresa is the former site of Jefferson College, but has been run by the Jesuits as a retreat house since the 30's. ("Jesuits?", I hear you ask, "But aren't you Anglican?" I am. But the Jesuits have this retreat thing down with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatious Loyola. And besides - I'm closer, theologically, to my Roman brothers than many of my Episcopal brothers/sisters/whatevers.) And it is the silence, I think, what makes the retreat for me. Three days inside one's own head, just you and God, can be a mind-bending experience - it is for me, every year. My "2x4 To The Head" time. Manresa is indeed idyllic:









If you can't find God in a place like that, in silence, you're in trouble.