On retreat

Last night I took an overnight retreat. It was an assignment for class. Here are my options for the final project for this spiritual formation class of mine: 1) Write a 15-17 page paper 2) Do an overnight retreat and write a 10 page paper. The choice is clear! I took the retreat from early yesterday afternoon 'til 11:00 this morning at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, which is about 10 minutes from where I live. It is a Catholic retreat center, run by the Passionists, who devote themselves to remembering the suffering of Jesus, and it's nestled up against the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. It's a very nice place, except maybe for all the pictures of Jesus bleeding everywhere. My time there was very relaxing. I highly recommend solo retreats. How many of you have ever spent serious time in solitude? It is a good thing. Anyway, here are some views from the last two days. One is of the retreat house just after 7:00 a.m. and the other is the view from the retreat center grounds looking out over the San Gabriel valley near sunset. That clump of skyscrapers off in the distance is downtown Los Angeles, and the clump of sort of tall buildings toward the right is pretty much where I live in Pasadena.