Prayer And Fellowship Retreat

Today I spent the entire day at the Westminster Abbey in Mission with my friend JS. We left here at 9:40am, and arrived there by 11 o'clock.

Approaching Westminster Abbey:

After a quick tour of the monastery, we went inside the beautiful church to watch the monks at midday prayers. Prayer time was short, about 10 minutes. Afterwards, we went upstairs to the 4th floor of the visitor's housing unit, where we discovered a beautiful little corner with couches, and a gigantic window with a gorgeous view of the Fraser Valley.

After eating our home-packed lunches, we set to having our own service from the Book of Common Prayer. J knows so much about the Anglican tradition of liturgical worship, so it was beautiful to have a full service, with just the two of us. We began with the Order of Morning Prayer, which included (among other things) the Te Deum Laudamus, the Benedictus, the Apostles' Creed, the Collects for Peace and Grace, and the Prayer of St. Chrysostom. Then we followed it up with the 3 daily Scriptures for today, based on the liturgical church calendar: Psalm 107, Isaiah 55, and Revelation 8. We closed with the Lord's Prayer, and the Grace. It was a wonderfully beautiful time of worship. This book truly is a gem of the church. Its format lends itself to communal worship the way few other books do.

Sanctuary:

Then we caught up on our personal lives. I've been getting to know him this past semester, and he's a tremendous guy. It was good to share with him some of my past history, my roots, and my journey of faith.

Afterwards we did some individual reading, and then we went for a quick walk. Upon our return to our little corner on the 4th floor, we drank mate. J and his wife A have actually been to Paraguay before, so he was delighted to drink this traditional drink.

At 5:30 we went to the evening vesper prayers in the church. This session lasted 40 minutes, and it was beautifully reverent, solemn, quiet, and oh so peaceful. I got goosebumps listening to the angelic tones of the gregorian chants.

Architecture:

Throughout the day we discussed various topics: the purpose of theology (LOVE GOD MORE!!), traveling, Eucharistic theology, Charismatics, California, family histories, Anabaptists, Vancouver-rain, monks, Orthodoxy, and of course, mate.

We arrived at home at 7pm.