Fr. Stuart Chalmers was the preacher for the Pluscarden Community retreat this year, from 23 - 30 October 2021.

Fr. Stuart is well known to our community, as a Priest of our Diocese, a frequent visitor, and a good friend. More recently we have seen somewhat less of him, following his assignment as Spiritual Director to the Scots College at Salamanca in Spain. There he especially looks after candidates for the Priesthood undertaking a pre-seminary year of discernment.

Unfortunately, the day he was due to come from Salamanca to Pluscarden, Fr. Stuart took the necessary covid test, only for it to register a positive result. Happily for him, this turned out to be a false positive. Nevertheless, by law he had to go at once into isolation, and all travelling was ruled out of the question.

Through the wonders of modern technology, the conferences went ahead anyway exactly according to schedule: but instead of Fr. Stuart being present in person, he spoke to the community from his office in Salamanca, via a zoom link.

In this year's retreat we had just one conference a day, to allow more time for the brethren for personal prayer and lectio divina. That was much appreciated; as indeed were all the conferences.

Fr. Stuart drew particularly on the writings of the Spanish mystics, with which he is very familiar. He spoke about the love of God; about God's pressing invitation to union with Himself; about growth in the life of prayer; and about overcoming obstacles in the spiritual life. These are all very good themes for a retreat! Use of the big screen also allowed the speaker to illustrate his themes with visual slides as he went.

This was all solid, life-enhancing fare. Happy those candidates for the Priesthood who are introduced to these riches at an early stage of their formation!