Over the years I have found personal retreat from they regular place and patterns of life critical for my spiritually sanity. Some of my sweetest retreats were when I lived in Boston, where I would retreat to Emery House, a modern monastary of the order of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. (Thanks to Steve Macchia for turning me onto Emery House!) These Episcopal brothers have taken vows of poverty, service, and silence, offering their housing and acreage for personal retreats. I will never forget some of the soul-renewing times spent there.
Now that I am in Austin, Texas I have been looking for a new location for retreat…and may have found it at Laity Lodge. LL specializes in retreats, offering a whole range of them, from educational to recreational. They have recently hosted speakers such as N.T. Wright, Marva Dawn, and Gordon Macdonald. I am hoping to win a contest so that I can check out LL firsthand.