the beach, I made time for a weekend men’s retreat. This retreat is called Path to Spirit Warrior
and this year I was one of the guides. On the weekend, we encourage each of the participants
to reflect deeply on their own lives and to connect to their sense of the Spirit (however they
understand that) to guide them in their choices going forward. The experience is deliberately
intense, inviting men to examine the deepest parts of themselves. My role was to facilitate this
examination along with a team of other guides: as such, I was witness to breakthrough
moments of self-awareness; to transformational self-forgiveness and self-love; to powerful
emotions as men faced the truth of the best and worst parts of their lives. The difference in the
participants from the beginning of the weekend to the end is miraculous, and I was honored to
be a witness and facilitator to the self-growth work that I saw.
It was also profound to be a part of the team that facilitated the weekend retreat. As I have
experienced at other retreats that are part of the larger ManKind Project movement, there is a
connection and love and trust among all the men there that exists almost nowhere else. I feel
seen and appreciated and alive in this space, a strong sense of being with my people. I get a
similar feeling in some Unitarian Universalist spaces, and the similarity is that we are
connecting to one another and to something larger: to the Spirit, to the most important things
in life (purpose, meaning, love, mortality.)
As I return from summer vacation and begin a new year of ministering to this congregation, I
bring the wisdom and power of this men’s retreat with me: the assurance that I am held by
Love and that Love flows through me; the knowledge that we can transform ourselves and each
other in communities that hold us and allow us to be our full selves. May we find such
communities and may we be part of creating and sustaining these communities.
PRAYER:
May all be blessed and loved. May divine light show us the truth within ourselves; may we dare
to be with others as they discover their light and their truth.
Blessed be.
Rev. Drew Frantz
August 9, 2023