St. Beuno's

"... You saw there how the Lord carried you all the way to this place .... " (Deuteronomy 1:31).  I am just back from a six day silent Ignatian guided retreat at St. Beuno's in North Wales.  As on my two previous visit, this was a great opportunity to spend time in prayer - as well as doing a little bit of "light" walking in the Welsh countryside.  I found both elements of the experience enriching - how good to focus on prayer, to the exclusion of emails, for a few days!

I started out with this verse from Deuteronomy and reflected both on how God "carries" me and what are the things that I am carrying.  One of the great things about God's carrying is its supportive nature and how that gets me where I need to be, even when that is through the wilderness, as in tis particular instance in Deuteronomy.  The wilderness is a difficult and barren place, but it needs to be crossed.  It is also not insignificant that God's carrying is total - "all the way".  There are no half measures with God.

The context of this verse reminds the people of what God did for them in Egypt and in bringing them out of Egypt and so challenges them to trust God, the one who can be trusted.