Regardless of our vocation – married, priesthood, religious, or single – the daily grind and the pressing worries that ever more hound us day and night can wear us down. Even when we love our families, our work, our ministry, our community, we can still become like a well that’s gone dry.
And something must be said about our post-modern obsession with multi-tasking. Is that really how humans were meant to live? I don’t think it would be over the top to say that it is inhuman, even with all the tools we now have which allegedly assist with this frenetic, attention-splitting lifestyle.
In fact, it seems with all the conveniences and communication technology available to us, we are multi-tasking and doom scrolling ourselves into states of severe anxiety, depression, and poor health in which we lose sight of faith, hope, and charity.
We lose sight of who we are. We lose sight of Christ.
A remedy for this lifestyle, found in ancient Christian tradition and modeled by Jesus, is to make a retreat.
What exactly is a retreat and why would I make one?
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| Mount Saviour Monastery at dawn |
If we consider the Christian life on earth as the “church militant,” we can think of how our daily lives may indeed be a battle, or more precisely, a series of battles that are often waged on several fronts at once. These fronts are personal, emotional, financial, spiritual, and vocational. If we are to fight the good fight, how are we to do so with flagging morale and exhaustion of mind, body, and spirit?
Making a retreat offers us a time and place away from the daily grind, including the things that can distract us – even the good things – so that we can reconnect with the One who loves us, who offers us peace.
Even Jesus stepped away from his active ministry to spend time alone with the Father. If he needed that time in his humanity, certainly we do, too!
When Jesus healed the sick, spoke to the crowds, or taught his disciples, he was often found going off by himself to pray to the Father (Lk 5:16, 6:12; 9:18; Mk 1:35; Mt 14:23). He instructed his disciples to “go into your room and close the door” to pray to the Father in secret, who sees everything in secret.
St. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing.” Even if we are attentive to daily prayers and times for worship and adoration, we may need to unplug and reground in the Holy Spirit. That’s what a retreat can do for us.
How and where to make a retreat
Most dioceses have religious orders or even monasteries that offer private or group retreats, and many parishes offer day-long retreats during holy seasons of the liturgical year.
There are guided retreats and individual retreats – either will be of great assistance, depending on one’s calling, life situation, and personal needs.
If you can find a monastery to get to for a retreat, I highly recommend that option. Participating in the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) of the monks or nuns will help unwind our twisted strains of thought that fly in every direction. The silence invites us to hear the Lord’s voice, and to quiet our own chatter, both inner and outer.
Many monasteries may also offer accompaniment or spiritual direction as part of a retreat experience. This assistance can be helpful in gaining some perspective into questions, confusion, or difficulties we may be experiencing in our lives or in prayer.
Ora et Labora
I have found that a balance of silent prayer and vocal prayer, combined with some physical activity, whether going for walks or helping in a monastery garden, to be especially helpful. The effect is an opening of the interior to a listening disposition, to hear the Lord’s still, small voice.
St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism, wrote a Rule based in ora et labora, prayer and work, as the way to cooperate with God’s grace and to live a balanced and truly human life in community, as God intended. Of course, we humans constantly battle with our fallen nature, and no monastery (or family) is perfect!
But making a retreat where prayer, silence, and simplicity are the focus will certainly set the stage for us to draw closer to God, if made in the right spirit. This balanced approach can have the effect of simplifying our expectations of ourselves in the moment, and of refreshing our spirits, minds, and bodies so that we can carry on as followers of Christ in our everyday lives.
Here are a few of my best tips for making a retreat:
- Pack lightly. I always tend to bring too many books, and invariably, there is some spiritual reading available in my room or offered to me that is exactly what God wants me to have for this retreat.
- Bring a journal. Even if you’re not the “journaling type,” having a place to write prayerful thoughts that the Holy Spirit places in your heart will help you bring back to your regular life something that God wants you to have.
- Don’t neglect devotions, but don’t forget to make time for contemplative prayer. Sit with God, open and receptive, and let the Holy Spirit pray in you. Doing this before the Blessed Sacrament is the best way!
- Go for walks! Even if it’s cold! Just bring appropriate clothing and footwear.
- Listen to your body – if you need to sleep, sleep! Napping is a time-honored monastic tradition, after all.
- Try to stay in the sacrament of the Now, being present to Christ as he is present to you. Another way to put it is to practice the Presence of God. Offer your busy thoughts to Jesus and ask him for his peace, surrendering the whirlwind mind and allowing him to enter in.
- Take your time. Don’t rush anything and remember to enjoy where you are.
- Be open to conversations or other happenings as a gift from the Holy Spirit. We often don’t know what we need to hear, to know, to feel… but God does!
- Decide that everything that happens on your retreat is perfect, as God intends it.
Returning to the world and our regular lives from a quiet retreat may in one sense be jarring, but with regular time set aside for this renewal, our daily lives become less fragmented, and more focused on Christ and the people who matter, rather than the distractions that enervate us.
I hope and pray that you can find a place to make a retreat, to reconnect to the One who never stops calling, healing, and loving us. Make the time, whether it’s a few hours or a few days. You won’t regret a moment, and you’ll probably wonder why you hadn’t done this ages ago.
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