I have been have a few quite days away from the Sabine Farm at a retreat center with quite a few priest friends. It isn’t really a retreat, however. It is more like an informal conference.
Each year we get together somewhere for four days, have a guest speaker (or one of us gives a talk).
This year I gave a presentation on what Pope Benedict was really driving at in his address to the Curia in 2005 in which he used the phrases "hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture" and "hermeneutic of reform". Pope Benedict is carrying on a bit of a polemic with a particular group of theologians.
Then we had some presentations on an aspect of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: there question/response dynamic built into the texts which, once recognized, helps us to explain the material and make it relevant.
Also, a couple days ago, Francis Card. Arinze joined us. He’ll be speaking today on his experience of priesthood.
So, our mornings are busy, but in the afternoons and evening some of the guys will find a golf course or simply hang out talking.
Tonight we are having a big cookout: steaks.
It is a great annual event, and though it isn’t a retreat, it is refreshing.