Settling in and meeting my companions

It always takes me a day or so to settle down once I get here. We get used to a certain pace in life and when that pace gets interrupted... well it's disconcerting.  Coming from industry where things are always "push, push, push" it's a bit of a task to readjust my time schedule to monastery life. 

For example, at vespers this evening, while I'm much more familiar with the layout of the service and know my way (a bit) around the black book we use, I found myself wishing the monks would just pick it up a bit.  When they're chanting the psalms, there's a long(er) pause at each half-verse.  This evening I found myself leaning in at each of these, wanting to get things moving.  It seemed unnatural to me (but of course perfectly natural to them).  Same once I met my fellow retreaters... Jennifer runs this as a bit of a contemplative retreat (why it's at a monastery, I guess) and the session is filled with lots of waiting for the Holy Spirit to move us (as well as time for us to hear God).  This time is incredibly important - and part of what I'm here for - but it still takes some getting used to.

I'm here with 20 or so youth workers from across the nation (I think the most distant one is from Texas) along with Jennifer (author of the My Faith, My Life book we all use) and Fran who is an incredible song leader.  I realized this evening that one thing I miss at my parish is singing.  We have great musicians in our church, but not too many people sing on a Sunday morning.

The monastery church has a bell tower and in it is a very stately church bell.  To me it sounds deeper than most and it has a rich, but varied ring (perhaps due to the skill of the bell ringer).  It rings a "drop everything and come pray" ring about 5 minutes before each worship time.  It rings a stately call to prayer at the start of worship, and tonight it rang a somber toll for a person (along with his victims and the families of both) who was to be executed tonight in TN