Posted on 11/19/2007 11:31:36 AM PST by Stoat
CONCEPTION, Mo. - Remember quiet? It's that sound of not much at all, a fall breeze over a still pond, a car on a gravel road, frogs. Conception Abbey, which sits among the hills and farms of northwest Missouri, a few miles east of where cell phone service dies, has that good kind of quiet, the kind that holds the promise of going on and on.
The abbey, home to about 65 monks, is one of several Roman Catholic Benedictine monasteries around the world that are open to groups and individuals looking for a little time to reflect, pray, escape or just stare off into space.
Retreat options abound across the U.S. and beyond. There are retreats for Quakers and wayward Catholics, body cleansing retreats and marriage retreats. Retreats are held in tepees and four-star lodges. Many are religious. Some are not.
Retreat packages vary, but the point is usually similar. Retreats are meant to be different from a vacation, which these days can be more exhausting than daily life. At a retreat, the idea is to do a little personal work, even if that means working at just being still and enjoying the quiet.
While Conception Abbey also provides guided group retreats, individual stays are simpler and don't require a lot of planning and organizing. Just a phone call or two, and if rooms are available, a traveler is welcome.
The Benedictine monks have a tradition of hospitality and welcoming people, says the Rev. Patrick Caveglia, director of the abbey's guest center. While the tradition calls for hosting "those from the household of faith first," strangers, seekers, all manner of people aiming to unplug are welcome. And Caveglia has seen them all.
"There are a lot of people out there looking for some peace and quiet," Caveglia says. "There are a lot of baby boomers like me, thinking, `I'm probably mortal, and I've taken early retirement, or early redundancy, and maybe I ought to think about what I ought to do with the rest of my life.'"
Some visitors show up at the abbey for a night or two, alone, in a group, or with a spouse. Some want to talk to a monk. Others want to be left alone to roam the grassy path around little Lake Placid or walk the wooded trail that includes the stations of the cross.
Jennifer Phelps started coming to the monastery five years ago. Now she travels the 140 miles from her home in Carlisle, Iowa, once a month to rest and pray.
"Frequently, napping is the first thing I do at the monastery," says Phelps, 60. "I usually don't go with an agenda. ... I like to go where it is soothing, calm and tranquil.
"Not everyone I know thinks it's necessarily a good idea that I go so often. ... But when my work schedule gets heavy, and I miss a month or two, I can really tell."
Scott Killgore, pastor at the Wyatt Park Christian Church in St. Joseph, has been coming to the abbey several times a year since 1999.
"The quiet is a huge part," says Killgore, 53. "My cell phone service is not very good up there. That's a gift from a God."
Killgore is also drawn to the prayers and services, even though he is a pastor in another denomination.
"As soon as I hit the ground up there, I know I'm on holy space, and I just feel my stress level and everything go down," he says. "As a pastor I get so busy doing church stuff, sometimes, as ironic as it may sound, I have to get away from church to have some me and God time."
Abbey guest rooms are simple. Most consist of two twin beds, shelving and a toilet and sink shared with the room next door. Showers are down the hall, and meals are in the guest dining room. If you arrive late, pick up your key at the welcome center and leave payment in the mail slot.
A single room costs about $25 a night during the week. It's an additional $5 for weekends. If you choose to dine with the monks, it costs about $7 a meal. Reservations are required. Tours of the abbey grounds, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the abbey's "printery" - where cards, calendars and the like are made - are $10.
Prayer, of course, is also encouraged. At Conception Abbey, where the ethic seems to be more peaceful reflection than rosary kneading, the prayer schedule is extensive, with six a day, starting with vigils at 6 a.m. in the basilica and running through the evening prayer, the Compline, at 7:15 p.m.
Prayers and services in the basilica are all among the dark-robed brothers, whose voices don't so much break the quiet as soothe it.
On a recent evening with a nearly full moon rising beyond the large red-brick basilica, conspicuous among the farm houses dotting the landscape, the monks slid promptly and quietly into their places near the altar. They sang their prayers, a sort of reverent, gentle farewell to the day.
Afterward, the monks — some older, some looking like college kids — lined up and just as quietly left the sanctuary, leaving a traveler alone in the pews — with the quiet.
___
If You Go...
CONCEPTION ABBEY: Conception, Mo.; http://www.conceptionabbey.org or 660-944-2821. Weeknights, single room $25; weekends, $30. Dining with the monks, $7 a meal. Reservations required. Tours of the abbey grounds, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the abbey's printery are $10.
ACCOMMODATIONS: Abbey guest rooms are simple, twin beds with a toilet and sink shared with the room next door. Showers are down the hall. Meals are in the guest dining room.
PRAYER SCHEDULE: At Conception Abbey, the prayer schedule is extensive, starting with vigils at 6 a.m. in the Basilica and running through the evening prayer, the Compline, at 7:15 p.m.
RETREAT DIRECTORIES: http://www.osb.org/retreats/ (Benedictine) and http://www.retreatsintl.org (majority of listings are Christian).
A handful of visitors attend a service at Conception Abbey in Conception, Mo. Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007. For $25 a night, visitors can visit the abbey for quiet reflection or to talk to one of the monks that live there. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Ping :-)
Hate to tell the reporter, but that ain't quiet!
Hate to tell the reporter, but that ain't quiet!
Is it the frogs that are of the greatest concern? Unfortunately, the map and directions to the monastery don't provide an actual street address so I can't get a satellite image to see how far away the pond is from any buildings.
I'm guessing also that the reporter was speaking of the sounds outside the buildings and I'd expect the outer walls of the Abbey to be around a foot thick....probably thick enough to insulate from "most" frog sounds when you're indoors :-)
"Quiet" is all a relative term of course....I would think that someone from, say, Manhattan would find it to be VERY quiet, whereas someone more accustomed to rural settings might not think it's so very different.
I think, though, that a big attraction would be the environment, where you're surrounded by people who are focused on a very noble mission....and the exclusion of thoughts and activities not relevant to that mission would provide a unique sort of quiet that sounds rather appealing, to me at least :-)
I went to a 5 day silent retreat - it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. No talking, no TV, no radio, and 3 hour long prayer sessions each day. That said, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
That sounds wonderful! A great way to 'recharge' the spirit and find inner peace.
bttt
My idea of perfection ...
I had a friend in Tulsa who spent several years as a novice at Conception. He eventually decided he didn’t have a religious vocation, but he’d had a great time there.
Monasteries have that effect on many people.
Here's a picture of the Monastery of +John the Forerunner near my maternal village in Greece. Its a long walk up and down to get there, but always worth it!
Did they shoot scenes in a James Bond movie there?
“Did they shoot scenes in a James Bond movie there?”
LOL! Not that I’m aware of TC! Did Patrick tell you that?:)
You’re right, it was the one up on the pinnacle. I think I’ve seen your picture in a “Wonders of the World” book on Greece.
We don’t let the children watch James Bond movies: casual immorality all over the landscape (literally). Of course, one could say the same thing about the Iliad ...
Sure is a dramatically scenic place. Conception Abbey is in my homeland, and it’s just pleasantly bucolic :-). Goats would fit in, although hogs are more prevalent.
“Goats would fit in, although hogs are more prevalent.”
Noble beasts both! Before the War, on the feast day of +Gerasimos of Leontarion, the people of our village would cook up to 400 pigs on spits and have a big festival. People always identify lamb with Greece, but actually the Greeks eat easily more pork than lamb.
Methodists do that here.
We cooked a hog on my 11th birthday, in exotic Missouri. I recall riding back from the farm in the back of the truck with the (ahem) soon-to-be-main-dish. No smell like live hog ...
“Methodists do that here.”
There are no Methodists in Greece. They don’t speak Greek and you and I both know what that means!
Yes, it’s a sad thing, because they have such excellent barbecue dinners.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.