Emmaus Retreat

During the first weekend of November, I (finally) attended the Emmaus retreat for women. The women who ran the retreat put so much love, thought, and effort into it that it was impossible not to be touched. It is impossible to describe the details because of the firm rule that what goes on in Emmaus stays in Emmaus. Also, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone taking it at a later time. Anyone going should approach it without preconceptions in order to appreciate it fully.

I keep hoping that Jesus will suddenly reveal himself to me and that I will believe wholeheartedly, but that didn't happen. However, I did get a deeper understanding of what Christianity at its best could be when I remembered a passage from the Colossians about all things being in Christ and Christ working to reconcile all things unto himself.  A friend, a rabbi, defined mysticism as the belief that there are no separate experiences and I guess I had a mystical experience because I felt and longed for that unity in Christ and perhaps experienced it for a flickering minute. However, after returning to normal life, it is hard to hang on to that insight. But for that moment, I felt that everything I had done wrong and everything wrong that had been done to me would somehow be reconciled in Jesus.