Friday

We started the weekend workshop with a buffet followed by a short film and get together. It was a great opportunity to catch up with those who we already knew and to meet those we hadn’t.

Saturday morning

Saturday started bright and early with mass for those who wanted to participate followed by breakfast. Our first talk was with Fr Michael who went straight for the big questions: what is the meaning of life? Why are we here on earth? Fr Michael explained that we have an innate sense of the transcendent and that leads us to pray. Interestingly the development of civilised life is measured by the emergence of the first burial sites. While animals don’t bury each other when they die, we humans do. Why? Because we detect that there is something to be reverenced in the body. It is through that reverence for the person that we come to an understanding that there is a greater being beyond ourselves to whom we pay homage. Thus we are led to pray.

Having given us a great explanation as to why we should pray, he answered any questions we had. After this we had time to talk, walk, read or pray.

At noon Fr Michael gave us the second talk of the day on how to pray and again provided people with the opportunity to ask him more questions. Before we knew it, it was lunch time and as ever the lunch was amazing. There was a lovely atmosphere in the dining room as we all chatted, ate good food and drank lovely wine.

Saturday afternoon

After lunch we all got together in the living room and chatted together. Everyone had loads to talk about so if you looked around the room you could see small groups deep in conversation. We learned about how to pray using the gospels in our final talk with Fr Michael. He showed us how Jesus takes on our humanity with all its limitations to reveal God to us among other great insights into the gospels. By this point in the day, people had really warmed up and at the end of the talk there were lots of questions for Fr Michael to answer. Once he’d finished answering all the questions he went off to the confessional and we were free again to go and chat to him further or go for a walk, pray or talk.

Saturday evening

After lunch we all got together in the living room and chatted together. Everyone had loads to talk about so if you looked around the room you could see small groups deep in conversation. We learned about how to pray using the gospels in our final talk with Fr Michael. He showed us how Jesus takes on our humanity with all its limitations to reveal God to us among other great insights into the gospels. By this point in the day, people had really warmed up and at the end of the talk there were lots of questions for Fr Michael to answer. Once he’d finished answering all the questions he went off to the confessional and we were free again to go and chat to him further or go for a walk, pray or talk.

Outcome

It was a lovely weekend with many familiar faces and some new. We had all enjoyed the relaxed and friendly atmosphere along with the great hospitality shown by the staff of Thornycroft. All the talks, questions and answers had left us with plenty to ponder and many of us were inspired to develop our prayer lives and to visit Thornycroft again soon.