Just came back from a five day silent retreat with the monks at Notre Dame du Kokoubou, a monastery in Benin. Here are some photos:
Kokoubou - entrance hut
Kokoubou - the oratory by night
Kokoubou - guest rooms
Kokoubou - guest rooms
Kokoubou - the oratory
Kokoubou - inside the oratory
I’m writing this while enjoying the hospitality of the Benedictine monks of Fleury Abbey in the Loire valley. This time I’m experimenting with a month long retreat, during which I continue my normal work whilst joining the community for their liturgy five times a day. This is a very different experience from the usual kind of retreat during which I shut down from work completely for three days. The idea is to learn more about integrating prayer and work, following the Benedictine motto ‘ora et labora’ (prayer and work). And since the countryside around here is flat in all directions as far as you can see, it’s ideal cycling country, so I’ve hired a bike.
Abbaye de Fleury sunset
The retreat with the Cistercians at Kokoubou was invaluable as usual. Every time I go there, it is as though I arrive sick, am hospitalised, get expert medical treatment, and return home healthy. I continue to find biographies particularly helpful reading material for retreats. This time I read the account of Gabriel Maindron, a French priest who was in Ruanda during the genocide. Though now I come to think of it, it is just the kind harrowing bed-time reading which St Benedict recommends we avoid in the Rule.
I spent the New Year at the Cistercian Monastery of Notre Dame du Kokoubou. It was only once I got there that I realised how exhausted I was. What with a ridiculously heavy work schedule leading up to Christmas and several weeks of not feeling well, it took me two days to wind down completely. During that time I had the wise words of an old friend ringing in my ears : “Don’t even think about coming to the Daily Office for the first day : just let yourself be carried by the community.”
Once I felt better, I spent time meditating on the lives of the seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine (Algeria) who were kidnapped and beheaded by extremists in 1996. The prior, Christian de Chergy, had been involved in a positive experience of Muslim-Christian dialogue over many years.