Secretly leaving his palace post as a tutor for the emperor’s sons, Arsenius sailed to northern Africa where he sought God in the solitude of the desert. Once there, he again prayed his prayer for salvation and was instructed, ” Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always. A successful man of great learning, Arsenius boldly journeyed toward the heart of Christ in the solitude of the desert. Solitude, silence and prayer: this is a heart of the spirituality of the desert - the spirituality of retreat.

There is another rich story about Arsenius. Persons newly entering the desert retreat understood the need for guidance by someone who had gone before them. Arsenius’ mentor took him a good distance from his shelter with a dead stick in his hand. Inserting the stick into the desert ground, he instructed Arsenius to water the stick every day. Arsenius carried water from his shelter to the dead stick every day, watering the stick. He continued for a year with no results. After two years of this arduous task, the dead stick was still dead. After the third year of this seemingly meaningless endeavor, however, that dead stick began to sprout new branches and leaves.

In the 3rd century during a period of corruption in the Church, Christians fled to the desert. The desert is a harsh landscape for the body, but was a fertile place of renewal for the human spirit. Beginning with Anthony, the first monk, many sought God away from the noise, hurry and crowds of the cities. The faith of these men and women who had retreated to find God soon became well known.

God chasers eagerly sought out these older men of God in the desert, to the chagrin of these “hermit” monks who preferred to be alone with God. The monasteries, where many “retreatants” lived together, were a compromise between the hermit monk’s desire for solitude and the novice’s desire to be guided in the soul-fertility of the desert. Times together and time apart were established.

The power of retreat became so well known that some men who had left the city to live a solitary life with God were called back to serve the Church because they were recognized as the only ones capable of mediating the transformation power of God to a church struggling with corruption and heresy. Time and time again, women and men who had met God in a desert retreat were used by God in the city to navigate the Church through deadly storms into the harbor of fidelity. Retreat is not an abandonment of society. In retreat, we wait upon the Lord to melt away the barriers to his love so that we can be transformed and return to share that transforming love with those around us.

The practice of retreat is unbroken from creation to the 21st Century. St. Benedict, St John of the Cross, St. Ignatius, Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen are just a few names among millions who have been sought and found by God through the practice of retreat.
The invitation to a retreat with God is almost as old as creation. Adam and Eve walked with God in the evenings. Parted for a short time from his family and possessions, Jacob wrestled alone with the angel of God until he received blessing. Moses and Elijah withdrew to a mountain where they experienced God in ways that transformed their lives and the life of their nation.