St. Meinrad Archabbey is in St. Meinrad, Indiana.  It is a Benedictine monastery and seminary.  The Benedictines have as part of their Rule to serve the guest as if he (or she) is Christ, so they always have guest houses that are quite nice to stay in .  They are good for going on retreats.

Here are some pictures from the guest house there.

The guest house itself, as seen on the way back from the Abbey.

The baptism font is outside of the doors of the chapel. This is right in front of you when you exit the dormitory area.

At the back of the chapel (in line with the font) is this unusual crucifix.  It looks like Jesus needs a chiropractor.

(Edit to add – I looked up why his head is tilted, and learned from the website Reachparadise.com that crucifixes “…that show His head tilted slightly down (or up) and to the right are taking some artistic liberties. The right hand, in Christian faith, is the hand of blessing. Since Jesus chose to sacrifice Himself for our sins, He, in turn, gave us the ultimate blessing. This is why His head faces right in some crucifixes – to show that His death is a blessing for all of us.” It goes on to say that other reasons include “One stated that Jesus was facing the good thief, whom He saved before dying. The other said it was to reinforce that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

On the right side is the eternal flame signifying the presence of Jesus, and the aubrey, which holds the reserved sacrament (blessed communion wafers).

To the left is the paschal candle.

And a carved wooden statue of Mary and Jesus.

Near the front is an icon of Christ.

We had a room there that had supplies for us to work with while we were there.  There were coloring books, pens, paints, magazines, juggling balls and scarves, and jigsaw puzzles.  I was amused that the one that people pulled out to work on was one of a huge cathedral.  It was impossible for one person to do it all in the time we were there, so we all took turns (without discussing it, because it was a silent retreat) to work on it.  We were working together to build the church in many different ways.  

Brother Maurus, our host and liaison, made sure to put out wine for us at dinner.  

The sign on the door to the dormitory, reminding people to be mindful of others who were there.  Not everyone who goes there is on silent retreat.