Glenstal Abbey was pleased to welcome and host a large group of guests to the monastery for our day-retreat titled ‘The Garden of the Risen Lord: From Recognition to Action’ on Saturday 7th September.
The retreat explored Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus through the Gospel text, art, chant and contemporary ecological and feminist readings, with Dr Margaret Daly Denton as keynote speaker. A biblical scholar who began her career as a church musician, composer and liturgist, Margaret spoke first about the garden where the encounter with the Risen Lord takes place and the many echoes it has for readers familiar with the Biblical and Ancient Near East background on the Garden of Paradise.
In the afternoon, Margaret went on to discuss how the encounter leads to action and ended with a strong ecological reading on how we are to assume our stewardship of God’s creating activity.
Fr Luke Macnamara presented an opening paper titled ‘The Divine Bridegroom in Search of the Spouse’ which gave a scriptural perspective on the spousal motif in John’s Gospel and how the Risen Lord’s encounter with Mary Magdalene is its climax.
Later, Br Cyprian Love and Br Pádraig McIntyre gave a combined organ and chant improvisation session, before Br Emmaus O’Herlihy concluded the retreat day with an exposition and discussion of his newest painting of Mary Magdalene.
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