By QUILLAN AUSTRIA ’14
How would you like to wake up at 2:25 A.M to pray? Three seniors, along with their proctors, ventured four hours to Piffard, New York to pray and reflect on the Gennessee Abbey Retreat. The retreat brings a group of up to 12 seniors to a monastery where they live for three days along with trappist monks. Because some of the monks took a vow of silence, the retreat could be described as quiet, to say the least. The members of the retreat would have periods of silence that would last about three hours. Along with the silence the members received spiritual guidance from Fr. Jerome of the monastery. He would provide wisdom and answers to any question the retreat members had. Their day consisted of a series of prayers and naps from 2:00 A.M. until 9:00 A.M.; then
they would walk to the abbey for mass at 4:00 P.M.; and at 6:40 P.M. every night, they would join with some of the monks and perform a compline, or evening prayer, before going to bed.
The Gennessee Abbey retreat is meant to be a time of prayer and reflection. It provides seniors the opportunity to experience the life of a monk and see the inner workings of a monastery. The goal is not to convince students to adopt a monastic life. Rather, it’s to give them a chance to embrace something we rarely find in our busy, noisy lives: silence.
The monks have to be self-sufficient and provide the funds needed to keep the monastery running. In order to do so, the monks bake bread and sell it. On one day of the retreat, the monks baked 15,000 loaves of bread. “
