St. Meinrads

I'm writing this blog from the second floor of the library at St. Meinrads monastery in southern Indiana. I love libraries: old books, quiet, spiritual riches. I'm found a number of helpful books on the life of Jacob (I'm preaching from the story of Jacob this fall) and I have diving into a number of books that are giving me much to chew on regarding Identity Mapping.

I drove to St. Meinrads in a 2003 GT Mustang convertible. We had some extra money left over from the grant and I needed to rent a car for the trip to St. Meinrads so I thought it would be fun to rent a mustang. The problem was that I couldn't rent any from any of the rental dealerships in Indy: they either didn't have them in stock as rental cars, or you had to rent a premium vehicle and upgrade to a mustang (if there were any available at the time). It was Friday, and I had to leave on Sunday. I thought I would give it one last try and called my friend Josh Nottingham up. Josh leads MATS which is a car dealership that specializes in online buying and selling of cars, especially for people in ministry. It just so happened, Josh said, that he had been driving a mustang convertible and would be happy to let me use it for a week...So there I was, driving the mustang with the warm wind in my face, to St. Meinrads.

What has it been like at St. Meinrads?

Silence, Solitude...

A lot of time to think and pray.

Time to read and write.

I have ordered my days like this:

Wake around 6:00am or so (I'm not setting my alarm!)
Pray and Read
Jog (I have a path I take that winds around a few small lakes, through woods, up a hill, etc.)
Shower, Shave
7:00 call Jenny and the kids
7:30 Breakfast (usually no one is in the eating room; breakfast is served continental style)
8:00 Return to my room; pray
9:00 Go to the library and work
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Break, lay on my bed and think
1:00-4:30 work in the library; read; write; prep sermons.
4:30 check e-mail
5:00 dinner (again by myself)
5:30 rest
6:00 Jog (same route)
Shower
7:00-11:00 work...in the evenings I spend more time thinking about my calling, what work I want to do this year; I also take time to pray for the congregation.
Sleep

This has been a good time for me. It has been a time to rest and think. I feel like I have owned spiritual truth and reality here because I've had time to meditate and pray and chew on things. So I'm glad for this time. But will be glad to be home soon too!