Back From Retreat - With A Change for the Blog

Hi, folks! Just checking in here, back from my five-day retreat. It was very blessed, and (most blessed of all) very, very quiet...

Without getting into a lot of personal stuff, which I tend to avoid getting into in my blogging, I have felt for some time in my life that I am just a bit lacking in the 'quiet' aspect of things. I am a busy priest, all things considered, and most of it I consider to be fairly immoveable objects.

I do a fair bit of spiritual direction, have ever-growing (it seems) administrative responsibilities in Madonna House, and a wide variety of writing and speaking commitments, among which is this blog. The blog itself is not a burdensome thing - I write my posts in the quiet early morning hours, and have them posted before my work day begins, generally. I actually find writing the blog to be a meditative exercise, on the whole.

I went into the retreat feeling quite certain that something had to give, though, in my life. Things have been just a bit too busy, a bit too hectic, a bit too noisy, and what has primarily suffered in my life has been personal prayer and silence, recollection and space for listening to God. And of course, as that suffers, everything else suffers in consequence, right?

There are very few things in my life that I can change, in terms of reducing my involvements and commitments, nor do I especially want to, as I love being a priest and being involved with the work of God in the lives of my brothers and sisters as I am.

I can change one thing, however, that is a source of 'noise' in my life. And so, I am going to turn off comments on this blog. Not because I can't take criticism (I have a hide like a rhinoceros, truth be told) or because I want to suppress debate (e-mail me!), but because I simply don't have time for them, anymore, and it's one thing I can cut out of my life without a whole lot of fuss.

Comments have not been a huge part of this blog, and the vast majority of my readers seem to come here strictly for my posts and not for whatever discussion may happen. And, with a few notable exceptions, I don't think the comments have added too much to the blog, on the whole. So, farewell to comments, for now anyhow, and hello to a quieter... well, blog, anyway, if not life.

Other changes may emerge in days and weeks ahead - I anticipate perhaps not blogging every day as I have been, but we'll see. Peace to you all, and know that among my prayer intentions on my permanent list is 'all my blog readers'.