Retreating

Audience participation time.

How many of you, gentle readers, have ever made a spiritual retreat?  Show of hands, please......  I thought so.  Not many.  I'm sorry to hear that.

How many of you have ever been invited to make a spiritual retreat? .......Even fewer, I see.  Yet one of the great gifts our Catholic faith has is to take time off from the ordinary busy-ness of life to pray.

The evangelists give us good examples in the gospels of Jesus retreating from "the world" to pray.  St. Mark writes:  "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."  (1:35)  Sometimes Jesus would spend an entire night in retreat:  "In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God."  (Luke 6:12)  Jesus also invited his dearest friends to join him in retreating:  "The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.  He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.'  People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.  So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place."  (Mark 6:30-32)

All Catholic clerics are required by canon law to make an annual retreat, usually of five days duration.  Some priests follow Jesus literally, going off to a mountain cabin or hermitage alone.  Some priests attend a "preached" retreat.  A spiritual director, usually a wise and older priest, sometimes a seminary professor or retired bishop, offers three or four 45 minute reflections daily for the retreatants, along with a sermon at daily Mass.  The priests then spend the rest of the day reflecting on the content of these reflections during the days of the retreat.  

This is a good model, and I've attended several preached retreats with fine presenters.  But I have to admit that much of the time out of the chapel is spent in casual conversation or sharing clerical gossip.  On my bad days I call these "country club" retreats, and wonder whether the guys actually pray.  I know I found it hard to pray in that environment.

I found more richness in a silent, directed retreat.  Sister Marge Berry, a Sister of St. Joseph of Baden who was my spiritual director for a few years back in the day, invited me to join some sisters at their motherhouse for the first time in a silent, directed retreat.  I have been very very grateful to her ever since.  

This model is based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556).  In this model all retreatants (and spiritual directors and staff) keep total silence on the grounds of the retreat house.  No talking in the hallways, no chit-chat on the grounds or at meals, no TV or radio or internet.  This profound silence helps the retreatant to focus mind and heart on prayer and contemplation.  

Each retreatant also meets with a spiritual director once a day for about 30 minutes.  In these personally revealing conversations, the director listens to how God is speaking (or not speaking!) to the retreatant.  The director will offer one or two short biblical passages for the retreatant to intensely reflect on.  As I was taught this model, retreatants pray each day at least four one-hour periods of personal prayer, in addition to attending Mass and time for adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.  The rest of the day might include walking in a park, spiritual reading, a hobby such as painting (or doing cross-stitch for me) and relaxation.  All done, of course, in total silence.  

Retreats are not just for priests.  Lay folk, religious sisters and brothers, deacons, clergy and parishioners from other Christian denominations, attend retreats in Catholic retreat houses all over the globe.  All benefit from "time away," to be renewed in their faith and prayer, to be (sometimes) surprised by the Holy Spirit in their own spiritual journey.  We have several fine retreat houses in our diocese and western Pennsylvania used by laity, religious and priests.

The week of May 24-31 I drove up to Eastern Point Jesuit Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to make my annual retreat.  I regretfully state that I did not make a retreat in 2013, so in January I made reservations for this year.

Eastern Point is very special to me.  This very beautiful campus sits on the rocky shore of the Atlantic Ocean, about an hour's drive north of  Boston.  I love the profound silence there, and the rugged grandeur of Eastern Point.  It was there that I was privileged to make the full 30 day Spiritual Exercises in 2010, truly the experience of a lifetime.  In 2012 I went back for another eight day silent retreat.  And again this year, although for only six days this time, my 12th week-long silent retreat.

The logic of retreating in our busy world is inescapable.  But making time to retreat is much much harder.   All of us benefit from stepping aside, for however short or long a time (Jesus was interrupted in his retreat too), to pray, reflect, meditate and appreciate the life given to us by God.

(All photographs from the website of Eastern Point Jesuit Retreat House.  Visit  www.easternpoint.org  for more images of the natural beauty of the land, as well as resources for further information about the Spiritual Exercises and retreats.)