This is my stay at the Benedictine Monastery of the Order of the Holy Cross which is an Anglican order of St. Benedict. Actually. I was looking for a personal retreat for a few days either Buddhist, an Ashram or Monastery. This is the first one I could find that seemed to fit the needs. I thought it was Catholic! They had an opening, so up I went. It was heaven. They provide refuge from the world, a sanctuary, and maintain silence from 8:30 at night til after breakfast in the morning.

 

Here is the official webpage.

 

Breakfast was always hot cereal with fresh fruit and homemade bread. Dinner was homemade soup with homemade bread and salad. The cook was fantastic. Lunch (midday) was the big meal of the day and some excellent fish, chicken or vegetarian delight.

We had opportunities to pray in group at 6:30, 8:30, noon and 5:30 in the evening. (Matins, Lauds, Eucharist and Vespers for those who know ... I hadn't done this before myself). I never made the 6:30 one!!

Since this was Anglican, I was returned to the midst of the rich heritage of my childhood. I was raised Episcopal and married in Christ Church of Winnetka a famous Episcopal church they had all heard of. There were people there from all different places but mostly from a church nearby.

The brothers were wonderful. Here are some photos.

A double room,clean and comfortable, just $70 per night. I was in the room alone as the monastery was not filled during my stay there. I stayed Tuesday through Thursday.

 

Hallway leading to the rooms -- I loved the way this looked! I had a ghostly visit during the last night. Someone "opened the door" and came and leaned over me (on the side of the bed toward the wall) and tapped me on the shoulder. I was so frightened, I just pushed it away with my left hand. I think it was the deceased husband of one of the other retreatants as she spoke that morning about "dreaming" of him. I think he found the wrong room first!!

 

[Even though I'm a medium, I was sound asleep so I wasn't very nice about what he was doing there! I just said "go"!]

 

Small part of the Entry Hall. There were good books everywhere. They had a regular library with the old Dewey Decimal system. A full and separate religious library but also many great books of our culture. Heaven for Nancy, the intellectual!

 

Here are the famous white robes of the Benedictine monks -- they grabbed these on the way in to the chapel -- otherwise they wore clothes like everyone else. It was funny to see the Nikes out from under the robes! They wore jeans and sweats.

There was the Bishop there from South Africa. He was veddy veddy British!

The Great Hall leading to the dining room and the chapel areas. The dining area behind the gold altar piece at the back. It overlooks the Pacific Ocean waaaaaaay off in the distance.

 

In the chapel I lit candles for everyone I thought would have wanted to be there, too. It was so peaceful, beautiful and quiet, so away from the world!!

 

A favorite reading area for Nancy.

I found Volume I of Graham Greene's official biography to be just the thing for my retreat. As the Chicago Sun-Times review said (I once worked for the book review editor of the Sun-Times) "If you care about modern literature, and the prickly, committed writer ... if you care about God or England or the political 20th century, you will need this biography." That's me! I care about all those things a lot.

The biography was wonderful. I'm not finished yet. Volume 1 is 700 pages long. Graham Greene is one of my favorite authors. Look for the review of his chart coming soon on my astrology website, one I had been meaning to do for a long time anyway.

Another favorite reading area -- the fireplaces are HUGE.

 

This was a beautiful place in the garden to meditate.

 

Another of the front gardens

Easy hiking trail -- it leads to a waterfall (this was a rainy day). The monastery land backs up on national forest so there is untold amount of hiking available. I wish I could have brought my little dog Odie.

Another of the gardens -- lots of geraniums

View from the front entry -- I never found out what that big building was!

Another view out hiking -- there is also a view to the ocean which I didn't photograph