A Retreat at La Trappe [pp. 862-883]

A RETREAT AT LA TRAPPE.
any kind. From the Sulpicians they obtained a free grant of
about one thousand acres of land, but almost entirely uncultivated and even uncleared, and so rough as to make profitable
cultivation appear little short of an impossibility. Charity
brought them a few head of cattle, some seed and food for
immediate use, and from this humble beginning they have
grown to a community of some sixty souls, occupying a monastery which cost over eighty thousand dollars, having about
five hundred acres cleared and under cultivation, over two hundred head of cattle, besides horses, sheep, pigs, and poultry,
and employing during harvest-time about sixty or seventy
hands in addition to the members of the community. They
are, moreover, at present arranging for the establishment of an
offshoot at Lake St. John, P. Q., where a considerable tract of
land has been donated by the government.
Although our visit lasted only about an hour, it created in
me so deep an impression that before it was over I had fully
made up my mind to take the first opportunity of returning
and spending a few days of quiet retreat in the holy solitude
of La Trappe. What a beautiful thing is a retreat!-a time
devoted exclusively to prayer, and to a careful examination of
ourselves and of how we are progressing in the great business
for which we were sent into the world. Yet to those who
have never spent any time in a religious house the real beauty
and value of a retreat must be largely unknown. Many of the
secular confraternities, happily so common among us, hold
annually what is called "a retreat," but which is more properly a short "mission." Incalculable, indeed, is the good brought
about through the instrumentality of the mission; yet to my
mind no mission, however eloquent the preacher, is capable of
producing the lasting impression that is frequently the result of
a retreat in a religious house. For in the latter case one is
entirely cut off from home, business, friends, and daily avocations, and has, in short, for the time being severed every tie
that binds him to the world. The advantage of such seclusion
for the purpose of entering into one's self is obvious.
It was some months before time would permit of my carrying out my intention, but at length, in November, I wrote asking whether I could spend a few days at "Notre Dame du
Lac." The answer was not long in coming. "Our doors and our
hearts," they wrote, "stand open to receive you "; and so indeed
I found it during the two retreats I have since had the happiness of making there, one in the old wooden monastery and
Ix894.
867