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    The Retreatants
    The Retreatants
    The Retreatants
    Ebook190 pages2 hours

    The Retreatants

    By Wayne-Daniel Berard

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    The Retreatants tells the story of nine people on a silent retreat called "Experiencing Christ" at a retreat house identified only as The Center. Each of the nine retreatants feels that she or he has "lost God" in some way. Among their number are a sister whose religious order is dying; a reform-minded Catholic couple disillusioned by conservative trends in their Church; an ascetic and acerbic ex-seminarian; a woman who gained a doctorate in sacred scripture and lost a marriage. And then there is Lior, half-Jewish, half-Gentile, who has lost her parents and never found her identity. Their twenty-one-day retreat is led, surprisingly, by a Jew known only as Abramovich.

    Part Tom Bombadil, part Lewis's tutor "The Great Knock," part Tevye and Baal Shem Tov, Abramovich challenges the sincerity of their intentions and exposes their presumptions and prejudices. During the course of the novel, the nine have their images of God and of themselves undone, boiled back, remade under the tutelage of this gruff, exuberant, mysterious, caring, enraging man. Abramovich challenges them with koans such as "Why did the God cross the road?" and "How do you know if a problem is real or imaginary?" They experience rituals they could not have even dreamt of, with Eucharistic slight-of-hand and a remarkable diversity of voices. The structure of the Center is itself part of the retreat, as its guests experience a pagoda/chapel that telescopes up and back upon itself, and rooms such as The Well ("Please Enter Alone") and The Observatory ("Enter As a Group Only").

    But most telling of all, each retreatant receives a story, meant specifically for him or her, offering a version of the Divine that each needs to hear. Hence there are eight "stories within the story" in the novel (the married couple receives their story in common).

    As the retreat draws to a close, the retreatants still have to respond to the overarching koan of their experience: "What is at the center of the Center?" But they—and the reader—come to the novel's close having gained new insight and energy for future exploration.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWayne-Daniel Berard
    Release dateNov 24, 2012
    ISBN9781301107513
    The Retreatants
    Author

    Wayne-Daniel Berard

    Wayne-Daniel Berard, Ph.D. is Professor of English, Director of Spiritual Life and Chaplain of Nichols College, Dudley, MA. He is a Peace Chaplain, an interfaith clergyperson commissioned by the Peace Abbey, Sherborn, MA. Raised in Taunton, MA, Wayne-Daniel spent five years in Franciscan seminary. An adopted child, his discovery as an adult of his Jewish birth-parentage led to years of on-going Torah study with Rabbi Alan Ullman's School for Judaic Studies, Newton, MA. He is a published poet and essayist, his chapbook The Man Who Remembered Heaven having received the 2003 chapbook award from the journal Ruah. His first full-length book When Christians Were Jews (That Is, Now), subtitled, Recovering the Lost Jewishness of Christianity with St. Mark's Gospel, was published in 2006 by Cowley Publishing. Wayne-Daniel is the co-founder and co-editor of Soul-Lit, a journal of spiritual poetry. He is a member of B'nai Or, a Jewish Renewal Community in Newton, MA, and of the Emmaus Community in Bridgewater, MA. Wayne-Daniel resides in Mansfield, MA with his wife, The Lovely Christine; their shared families include six children, numerous cats, a rescued black shepherd and very spoiled dachshund.

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      The Retreatants - Wayne-Daniel Berard

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