Our theme for the 2021 silent directed retreat will be Praying With Jesus’ Questions.  Over the years I have come to the conclusion that our questions are at the heart of our spiritual formation.  One of the ways that we grow in awareness of God and in our living relationship with God is by making time to wrestle with questions.

I am a gardener and as a gardener I’ve learned that the quality of the soil in which you plant your seeds or those starter plants that you purchase is an essential part of good gardening.  In our silence during this retreat you might hear some cows mooing in the nearby Ahlberg farm.  I get cow manure from that farm that I use to make compost out of the vegetable scraps and leaves and grass clippings.   I have often said in these silent retreats that cow manure is to garden soil what questions are to the your soul’s spiritual growth.  And that’s why we have chosen Jesus’ own questions as a theme for this retreat.

The four gospels mention over 250 questions that Jesus presented to his followers.  Clearly Jesus’ method of teaching and encouraging spiritual discovery and growth included the use of questions.

Around the turn of the last century, German poet Rainer Maria Rilke had a correspondence with a young soldier who had written to the poet asking for advice on writing poetry.  That correspondence ended up being published as Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.  I’d like you to hear what Rilke had to say about the value of questions.  Be patient with regard to all that in your heart is still unresolved and try to love the questions themselves like closed parts and books written in an extremely foreign language.  Do not seek for the moment of the answer because you would not be able to live through it.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will live thereafter and gradually without realizing it, one day, live your way into the answers.  

The questions we will be focusing on in our worship times during the course of this retreat are:

• Who do you say that I am?
• Do you want to be well?
• Don’t you have eyes?  Why can’t you see?  Don’t you have ears?  Why can’t you hear?  Don’t you remember?  (Mark 8:18)
• What do you wish me to do for you?
• Why are you so terrified?
• My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
• Can you by worrying add a single moment to your life span?
• Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, but do not do what I command?

– Rev. Terry Cathcart, seasoned pastor, spiritual director, and silent retreat leader