Well, I’m off this weekend to Mount St Benedict’s here in Sydney for what’s being called the "2007 Benedictine Experience".

This is a weekend retreat being conducted by the Abbot of Australia’s only Anglican Benedictine Monastery, St Mark’s Abbey in Camperdown, Victoria.

Michael King and a team from the Abbey will be in Sydney for the weekend which will feature regular times of monastic prayer according to the Benedictine tradition of praying the Offices, some teaching on Lectio Divina (divine reading) and on the Rule of St Benedict. But beyond that, the entire weekend will be conducted in silence.

This will certainly be a weekend radically different from anything I’ve ever known. But I’m going with the heart of a novice, ready to learn what I can in order to glean what I can, not only for myself, but for the benefit of others. I’m also going in an effort to answer God’s deep stirring in my heart to find out how to apply monastic wisdom, values and practices into our present-day experience of church and daily life.

I’ll certainly give you a review of the weekend once I get back home.

In the meantime, could I remind you that there is only one more week for you to register your interest for the up-coming Quiet Day. Friday 12th October is the cut-off date. All the details can be found here.