Meeting God by the sea

 

 'How do you fancy going to a monastery?' 

 It's not something I'd ever considered, but when I said to my vicar that I was looking for somewhere to go for a retreat, this is what he suggested, so that's why I found myself heading off to Alnmouth on July 1 2024.

First, for those of you who are curious, what's the difference between a friary and a monastery? A Monastery is a place of seclusion, away from towns and cities, where monks can pray, study and live their lives. A friary however is  home to friars who serve the community. Friar comes from the Norman French word for brother. So this friary was in the Northumberland town of Alnmouth which has population of 300, but swells to three thousand during the summer!

My first surprise on arriving there was that they allow female guests, and not only that, two of the guests knew me! It was a mother and daughter who went to the church I used to go to in Sheffield. The friary served tea and cake at 4pm every day, in the sitting room, where they also had the Guardian delivered every day, which was a lovely bonus, as I was able to read the whole paper for the six days I was there. Yes, there were periods of silence but not all the time, and when there was silence at breakfast, you could read, which I normally do anyway so that was fine, but it wasn't really silence. There was the chink of spoons on bowls, toast popping up from the toaster, the odd cough from a fellow guest, the rustling of a cereal packet, so no, not total silence, but that's probably a good thing, as I feel total silence would have been too much for me.

There were regular times of prayer in the chapel but what I liked is that you could choose whether to attend the prayers or not. I did attend each one to experience them but it wasn't my style of worship, if anything, it gave me a new found gratitude for the colorful palette that I encounter every Sunday at the church I attend. 

The highlight for me was seeing the sun rise by the coast. It meant me having to get up at 04:15, which considering I took ages to get to sleep was even more of a sacrifice, but thankfully the friary was about 5 minutes from the sea so that really helped, and was what gave me the idea in the first place. 

This was where I felt in awe of our majestic and awesome God. I heard the sea before I saw it, like the boom of a cannon, and then their was a beautiful hush, except for the occasional cry of sea birds and the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore.  This was where I felt free to worship him in the way that he'd created me. He knows my love of nature, of sea shells, sunrises and sunsets. He was there waiting for me and this was where we met. A beautiful calm moment. Yes, I fully appreciated the hospitality and kindness of the friars, and admired and respected how they followed God, but this was the highlight of retreat for me.

Did I get any writing done? I did some writing in my journal, and a small amount of my novel, but as I didn't take my laptop with me, this was a different kind of time, novel writing could wait. This was me giving myself to God, and waiting to meet with him however that would be, and it just happened to be by the sea.

I'd love to hear if you've ever been on a retreat at a friary, monastery, abbey or anywhere else where you met with God. Let me know in the comments or on Facebook.

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology, Lent devotional and three Flash fiction anthologies. You can find him on Twitter here.