24 Hour Retreat at Richmond Hill

There's a large part of me that thinks in an attempt to maintain focus and clarity, I should not convey all of my personal spiritual experiences on this blog but instead, just write about the history of different churches and my experience attending different ones in the Richmond area. However, when an opportunity to realize God presents itself, it's hard for me to not include it as part of this project.

I have been introduced to Richmond Hill, located at 2209 East Grace Street, a monastery in downtown Richmond that described as "an ecumenical Christian fellowship and residential Community who serve as stewards of an urban retreat center within the setting of a historic monastery."

Richmond Hill's mission is to "advance God's healing of Metro Richmond through prayer, hospitality, racial reconciliation and spiritual development." As I browsed their website located at www.richmondhillva.org, it quickly became clear to me that I am to attend a one day spiritual retreat at their facility. I've decided to write about my time there in lieu of the traditional Sunday church service.

I'm not 100% certain yet whether I'm going to utilize this time as an opportunity to silently pray/meditate for 24 hours, or whether I'm going to take advantage of the spiritual guidance they offer and meet with a guide throughout my stay to discuss my search for Truth.

I'm going to leave that up to God. My desire is to have a guide work with me since I adore personal communication and talking about God, but the other part of me thinks that this may be the exact reason why I should embrace a 24 hour vow of silence. It might be just what the Dr. ordered. I'm confident that I'll know which route to take when the time comes.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit apprehensive about having 24 hours solely focused on God. I was once told that if you're leery of spending time in quiet reflection and meditation, it's a sure fire sign that you need to spend time in quiet reflection and meditation.

I'd have to agree with that statement.