Yesterday we hosted the 12th and last Priest group for a three day Contemplative Retreat. We started these small group retreats (four to a group) in Feb of this year so it has been a long process but very fruitful. We discovered there is a great hunger for rest, reflection and prayer in an atmosphere of Silence, Solitude and Simplicity.

We are now using our new guest house for the last  two priest retreats with good reviews. The house is located away from the main house with its kitchen and normal works. It provides a better atmosphere of Solitude.

A few days ago a young woman came to meditate with us for the first time. When we meditate in the early evening we start off with praying the psalms; each person has a book that enables them to proclaim the psalms out loud.

I noticed that our new guest was looking intently at the psalm book but in the wrong places as we were praying the psalms. I said to myself, ‘She does not know  how  to read. She is pretending’.

The following day I greeted her before our prayer time and she just looked at me and did not reponsed. I said to myself, ‘Why does she not respond? She doesn’t like me?’ When she saw my discomfort she said, ‘I can’t hear’.  Then I said to myself, ‘Wrong again”.

This  woman still continues to come pray with us; now knowing her condition I wondered why she is coming if she can’t hear anything. I started to pay attention to her looking over at her at the end of 30 minutes sitting in Silence. I saw a look of deep peace on her face. She was enjoying sitting together is Silence.

Why is this? I don’t really know but my guess is she does not get many opportunities to share with others the Silence she is always experiencing.

Yesterday we hosted 22 women from a women’s group at my former parish Mabatini. The main subject of the retreat  was Forgiveness. The Forgiveness, as taught and lived by Jesus. A unique forgiveness that demands much from ones asked to forgive others who have caused much pain in our lives.

These women are facing much that need to be forgiven: grinding poverty, alcoholism, family breakdowns, vicious gossip, daily psychological and many times physical violence, along with betrayal and a general lack of traditional communal support.

They struggle to let go and forgive the unforgiveable. Their faith and courage in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds against forgiving, is just amazing to me.

They are not perfect, they harbor grudges, they want revenge, they can’t let go and yet in the midst of this struggle, they reach out and forgive.

 

We are finished with our new guest wing that can welcome up to 6 guests in our 6 self-contained rooms, each with its own view of Lake Victoria. The building goes along with our vision of Simplicity, as the Bishop said when he came to view the building, ‘simple but beautiful’.

Today I met with 5 of the men who were the core of the building crew from the start in Feb. 2018 to today to thank them for their fine work and gift them with a small token of our appreciation. At the end of our short meeting one of them said that usually the workers of a completed building never get any acknowledgment, only the high-ranking government officials and owners of the building get any praise.

This is a small way we Maryknoll Missioners express ourselves with the people. We stand with the ordinary people even at the end of a building project.

We are basically done with the new building except for a few minor works; we can start moving in the new handmade furniture in a few days. The construction site is slowly disappearing as our new guest house takes its place at the Lake House of Prayer.

Now the question becomes, ‘we’ve built it, now will they come?’. Is the culture ready for a place such as ours? Can people get off the ‘rat race’ long enough to come to stay with us? Has the word of our place/services reached enough people? These and many other questions will need to be lived into patiently in the future.

We are grateful for those who have stayed with us and now we hope with 12 rooms available where before we had only 6 we will receive more visitors who will want to disengage for awhile and come to Rest in the Silence of the Lord.

Our House of Prayer made a little communal history this week by hosting two Sisters and four Priests; making for us a ‘full house’. Or to say more clearly, two full houses, one the ‘Rock House” which holds four rooms for men and the other ‘Yellow Houses’ having two rooms for women.

The challenges of meals, Spiritual Direction, worship space and solitude were met adequately and all were satisfied. This was a good test for welcoming and serving up to 12 guests in the future when our new guest house will be completed.

As we hope to welcome up to 12 guests at time in the near future the challenge becomes not only the physical environment of ‘full houses’ but the interior environment of the staff; that would mean not so much to have a ‘full house’ interiorly but having the ‘inner space’ to provide Silence and Solitude for our guests.

Yesterday at our monthly Site Meeting in which we meet with the Contractor, Building Supervisor, Clerk of Works and our Architects the commitment was made to complete construction by our next meeting at the end of June. Judy and I are already buying sheets, mattresses, water jugs, mosquito nets, towels, water glasses, shower slippers, outside chairs, water filter, and more.

We are making the furniture for all the rooms ourselves; in each room (cell) will be a bed with mosquito net frame, a small simple table for writing with chair, and a simple cushion chair. Each room will be named by a Desert Father or Mother. I want St. Moses the African, Judy wants St. Mary of Egypt.

I ask that do something to divert the rain water that comes rushing down our hill during heavy rains. The danger is if we don’t divert it the water will flood into our rooms. We decided to dug a good size gutter in front of the veranda to divert the water away from the rooms.

The struggle for the development is not easy so when we see how our work is creating a beautiful building that will serve people for many years, we have a quiet satisfaction.

Our contractor told me today that we have completed 79% of the work on our new guest wing. So, things going well we could be done by the end of next month. What to do in the meantime?

Many things actually need to be done to be ready for additional guests such as: making the furniture for the 6 rooms(bed, table, chair, cushion chair for each room), an extra dining table with chairs, a large table for washing dishes (the guests will wash their own dishes factory style), getting a new four burner stove, converting another space in the Rock House for preparing meals, 6 outdoor chairs, new bed sheets and towels, the list goes on but I’ll stop here.

We are moving into a new phase in the Journey of the Lake House of Prayer when we begin serving up to 12 guests at a time. The goal is to maintain Silence, Simplicity and Solitude; to keep it Small for indeed “Small is Beautiful”.