Pineridge Blog

I am currently on retreat at a Benedictine women’s monastery in Atchison, KS with two other close friends, colleagues and spiritual brothers.  We have been coming on retreat together for over 25 years, here for the last 20+.  All three of us were pastors in Iowa and began meeting together then to share our faith and our lives.  When I moved to Kansas City I grieved the loss of our little group more than anything.  It wasn’t too long before they too left Iowa to serve other churches and then started joining me here at the Mt. most Januarys for a three of four day retreat.  We don’t talk much in between our annual visits, since we all live in different states now, so it is a yearly chance to spend time in silent prayer, just enjoy catching up over meals, talk about the state and the future of the church, and deeply reflect on the past year and the new one going forward.  We have more questions than answers for one another.  Here in the quiet and sitting with my friends, I am grateful for my life—for my twists and turns of my spiritual journey, for my family and for the Pine Ridge family.