Silence and Supper Secrets: How to Beat Spiritual Dryness
Mar 01, 2026I walked into the main retreat room at St. Mary’s in Sewanee, Tn, where I was greeted with hugs, hospitality, and laughter. Our voices mingled, stories were shared in the ordinary holiness of being together. There was a group of women I sat with on the back porch, and we talked till the wee hours of the morning. It was exactly what my soul needed.
The next day, though, I felt a bit overstimulated, so I slipped away to a quiet spot and let the stillness settle in as I photographed the orange and purple sky as the sun sank behind the mountain range.
There are times when what our soul needs most is a crowded room. Laughter, love, and community. But there are also times when our soul longs for a quiet mountain. Somewhere that is still enough for us to hear our own breath and remember who we are. The Christian tradition has always held both.
A soon-to-be-student in our 2026 Fall Cohort recently sent me a reading from the Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw, reflecting on the Transfiguration and the Last Supper as prayer experiences. One wrapped in silence and mystery, the other full of conversation, song, and shared bread. Both offered an experience of the Living God, together reminding us that prayer is not one-dimensional. It is spacious enough to hold both solitude and community, both mountain-top awe and table-time intimacy.
The Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw states:
The “Gospel reading on the Transfiguration tells more about something that happened to three disciples than something that happened to Jesus. Peter, James, and John had a prayer experience. Their faith caused them to see this man with whom they had walked and fished and eaten for who he really was. They could not quite put their experience into words so they used the imagery of faces radiant as the sun, clothes dazzling, a bright cloud.
Such prayer experiences are very much part of our tradition. Each of us has those experiences at different times in prayer—when we just feel the presence of God, and we can't quite describe it in words. It's very powerful and is sometimes called a mystical experience.
Almost always, we need a “mountain” in order to experience the Lord, a place where it is quiet and still. A place where there aren't many people and we can experience him.
Compare this mountain experience and the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, the disciples sang songs and talked and spent time together. Jesus washed feet and they shared a meal and they argued a little and they left.
We need to experience both kinds of prayer in our tradition—the supper room where we gather, sing, and figuratively wash feet and the quiet of the mountaintop, especially during Lent.”
May we remember that Lent invites us to both kinds of encounters with the Divine—the quiet that reveals what’s stirring beneath the surface and the companionship that reminds us we don’t walk this path alone.
Katie Rea, WTC Writing Coach
Stay Connected!
Updates and News sent directly to your inbox.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
