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Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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May 28, 2006
> 10:41 PM
anniversary > gethsemani > merton   Yeah, I know, how cute. 18 years ago today, Liz and I were married in St. Mark's Catholic Church in Richmond, Kentucky. It was a Saturday and, much like today, it was HOT and humid. There weren't very many people there, maybe 100. I doubt there were that many. I wore a suit, as did my groomsmen. Liz had her wedding dress and the bride's maids had matching dresses, but that was about it. We were young. Liz had just turned 20 and I was 21 that May. I think there were even some people, friends of ours, who told Liz not to marry me. I know one Priest, too, said we shouldn't get married because we scored too far apart on a personality test (what the?). I'll probably talk about this another time, but this recent business about having to be "totally compatible" with someone in order to have a successful marriage - load O' crap. Oh, yeah, and her family weren't too hot on the whole thing either. I was Catholic and slightly cocky and that didn't go over well. Our divorce was predicted that day. There have been divorces, but none of them ours. Not happnin. I have made a choice and a commitment to love and live life with this woman for the rest of my life. Good stuff.  I made it to Gethsemani yesterday. The plan was for a half day retreat, leaving after lunch. Ended up there most of the day, till around 4pm. It was a good day. I got there around 9:30am, went into the church and sat quietly by myself for a while. It was hot yesterday too, so even with air conditioning I was sweating already. My running photography for the day is largely in black and white. I may have taken 3 or 4 photos out of 75 in color. I made myself do that - set my camera on b/w and stuck with it for the day. I think I got some decent shots. After my meditation time, I walked, prayed the stations of the Cross in the retreatant's garden in front of the monastery - good time of saying thank you to Jesus. The shot above right there is a close-up of one of the stations. Then I walked up on St. Joseph's hill and sat for a while, said the midmorning office (terce) on my own up there. I came down and went into the visitor's center/gift shop for a bit, then off to sneak around and find out what that little building surrounded by trees in the middle of a field was. Midday prayer in the church with the monks, then lunch. Dan Phillips and I had arranged to meet each other there and eat lunch together, as he was there for a retreat with some members of the International Thomas Merton Society. So we spied each other in the lunch line (no talking) and then went to eat in the "talking lunch room" - there's only one, the rest, quiet please. Great to meet and talk with Dan. We've been in some degree of e-contact for a few years and we finally met. Very cool. We had a good time chatting, telling our stories to each other, talking about this and that. Dan is a member of said society and, as such, gave me the gift of sneaking in on one of their retreat sessions - a Q&A panel session with a few of the monks there who knew Thomas Merton (Father Louis). Fr. Matthew Kelty and Bro. Patrick Hart didn't make it - one sick and one something else - anyway, as you can imagine, this was one of those little gifts from God that you get every now and then. I got another one at Gethsemani once - getting to go up to and into Merton's old hermitage. So, Bro. Paul Quenon over there, laughing at something Bro. Chrysogonus said in a story. Also Fr. James was there, whom I had known as guest master at a retreat I took. They had all been students or novices under Fr. Louis in the monastery back in the day. Great stories, very funny, good stuff. Thanks Dan! So, I was there a little longer, but it was worth it. Don't forget to check out the photos. Pax vobiscum.technorati tags > wedding anniversary, marriage, abbey of gethsemani, retreat, black and white photography, photography, dan phillips, thomas merton, international thomas merton society Labels: family, merton, photography 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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