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1. Receiving each person as an embodiment of Christ.

“Let every guest be received as Christ.” - Saint Benedict

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” - Matthew 25:40

2. To be guided by the outworking of the fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” - Galatians 5:23

3. Build trusting relationships.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2

“… make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” - Philippians 2:1-2

4. Prayerfulness. Being attentive to the Spirit and one another.

“Usually prayer is a question of groaning rather than speaking, tears rather than words. For he sets our tears in his sight, and our groaning is not hidden from Him who made all things by His Word and does not ask for words of man.” - Augustine of Hippo

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.” - Colossians 4:2

5. Study.

“The human intellect has greater desire, and love, and pleasure, in knowing divine matters than it has in the perfect knowledge of the lowest things, even though it can grasp little concerning divine things. So, the ultimate end of man is to understand God, in some fashion.” - Aquinas

“Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15

6. Peaceful pace. The unhurried leisure that comes from knowing the Lord.

“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts… ” - Colossians 3:15

7. Deep listening. Listen with heart, body, mind and spirit.

“And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.” - Luke 20:38

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us… ?” - Luke 24:32

I was also frustrated as a leader in a church and its subculture, seeing a great deal of nominal, almost superficial Christianity around me. Many Christians I knew seemed content performing religious duties while devoting most of their energy to pursuing their own interests.

God did not abandon me in my despair. He took the initiative, as He always does. He presented me with an opportunity to begin a spiritual journey. He soon placed another leader, Bill Leslie, who described his own spiritual dryness and pattern of being entirely drained. As he spoke, my heart craved more. Bill told of his turning point visiting a Catholic retreat center called Cenacle. After confessing his exhaustion, one of the sisters told him, “the pipe of your soul doesn’t go deep enough.” He understood. What was needed was a spirituality based on a direct encounter with God. He needed to “sit at Jesus’ feet.” And I realized, so did I. So began my my journey into the presence of God.

Glandion Carney and William Rudolf Long contend that a study of Jesus’ life can restore harmony, integrity, and balance to our lives as Christians. Focusing on the Gospel of Luke, they examine both the inner life and the outer ministry of Jesus.

The Hebrew etymology of Sabbath is simply “Stop!” - still visible at the intersections in the modern Israel. To be unable to stop is a symptom of the hidden conviction that our lives and the lives around us cannot survive apart form our striving. Such compulsion drives God’s children far from their true selves and God himself who is greatly feared and rejected by our false selves. While the false self compels us, we find ourselves resistant to coming apart; “What would happen to the world around us if it were deprived of our care for a moment?” A period of “Stop!”is a sacrificial leap of faith in God’s ability to sustain our life and the life of the world. The offerings of Sabbath can be received anew through retreat.

Jesus Our Example

Jesus, our guide into the recreative space of silence and solitude, began his public ministry only after experiencing a forty day retreat alone in the desert. All throughout his ministry, Jesus both retreated by himself and led his disciples in retreat. During a busy time in ministry, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus, “dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” (Matt. 14:23)

These retreats preceded important events in his life: decision making, such as the choosing of the twelve disciples; times of sadness; particularly taxing seasons of service; and times of great trial, as in the Garden of Gethsemanie. St. Mark recounts one such retreat, writing, “Then, because so many people were coming and gong that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” (6:31)

In chapter nine of his gospel, Mark relates, “After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were alone. There he was transfigured before them.” The indication of the 7th day reminds us of Sabbath, and Jesus’ short withdrawal from his active life accompanied by close friends infuses retreat with the hope of transformation. A retreat - a “sabbatical” - is a place where our identity as beloved children of God is revealed and cultivated. This call to retreat is a cool shock of wind that sweeps out of the Bible, through time, and into our homes and offices, whispering, “Child, come away with Me.”

Retreat Invitation

Retreat is not a magic formula by which we inject God into our loves. In retreat, we cup our hands around that flame of love that the Spirit continually hungers to ignite our hearts. Through solitude, silence and prayer we protect that flame from the winds of crowds, noise and hurry which extinguish the fire of divine longing. From Peter and John over wet and tattered fishing nets to Matthew sitting at his office desk like everyday before, the disciples of Jesus each hear this invitation, “Follow me! Come away with me for a time.” (Matt. 4:19)

These ordinary professionals were called away from their busy lives to be present to their Master. What made their ordinary lives extraordinary was their willingness to disconnect from their important business and respond to the great Invitation: “Wake up to the miracle of your life! You were created for a great love.” We are told of others being called who were too caught up in the stream of “life’s worries, riches and pleasures” to hear or respond to Jesus’ call - the rich young ruler among others. Surely those who answered Jesus’ call were not without important business, but their lives were transformed because of their willingness to hazard the important for the ultimate.

Retreat Experience

A retreat for spiritual renewal may seem to many of us like a journey into a bewildering and barren land. We have no compass and doubt the adequacy of our provisions. We may sense a call to pay attention to our souls, but knowing how to make our way in the wilderness causes us to ignore the invitation. However, we know that the desert’s barrenness is deceptive; with just a little water, the desert bursts into fruit and flower.

As we begin to answer the call to retreat, we need someone to accompany us - someone who will remind us that our dryness of heart is teeming with potential for abundant life. We need someone to nourish our faith, telling us, “That dead stick can become a living tree. Keep watering!” No seeker needs to enter the desert alone.

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.

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