LISTEN

Do we really need to go on a retreat?

We must see a retreat as a need. Just as our bodies need water and food to survive, we also need spiritual nourishment to grow and all we need to do is to receive this spiritual nourishment when it is offered.

But how do we receive it? 

The first step is always to respond to God’s invitation.

Remember Mary when the angel of the Lord came and told her that the Most High has favored her? Did she say, “I am busy, let me try that some other time” or “I do not have the resources to raise the child” or “let me ask my mother or Joseph first before I decide to accept the offer”?

There was no excuse and no hesitation on Mary’s part when she responded to God’s call and said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.” It was an absolute yes borne out of her trust in God, for in her heart Mary knew that it was God calling her. And her response gave all of mankind the opportunity to experience God’s salvation.

We must always remember that God always invites us and he invites us first. How we respond to this invitation is important.

When preparing for a retreat, the most basic thing to have is a “desire” to go for a retreat. Everything else will follow. We must learn to recognize that this “desire” is a call for us, because that desire is not ours, but it is the Lord’s. How do we respond to this desire or invitation is the first step in encountering the Lord in our life.

But what if I feel no “desire” for an encounter with the Lord? 

Then the mere absence of this desire and an awareness of its absence is already a calling in itself.  All we need to do is to acknowledge this emptiness and trust in the goodness of the Lord, that he does not invite us for nothing.

A retreat is a very special time. It is a time for an intimate conversation with the Lord. We are being called to be still for a while and rest.

“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.” – Mark 6: 30-31

It is the Lord that invites us to join him in this quiet place to “rest a while” from our busy world, just like how he invited his first disciples to find a quiet place to escape the crowd and spend time for themselves.  But this "retreat" to a quiet place is not just for rest, but it is a time to "be with the Lord". This makes a retreat more special than say, an outing with family and friends. A retreat is an intimate encounter and a special time with the Lord and to listen to him speaking in our life. 

Once we have made that initial response to God’s invitation, then we must also prepare ourselves to open our hearts to see God’s life in us. We do not know what will happen in a retreat, but let us just trust the Lord that whatever it is, it will be good.

We must keep in mind that we could leave this encounter or this retreat feeling empty and confused. But be not afraid for much of God’s work in us will happen at God’s time. What is important is an opening and emptying of our hearts to allow God to fill it up again.

Refreshed and renewed. This is God’s desire for us in our retreat.


Note: This piece was written and meant as preparation for those who are joining LISTEN (the SCAAA Retreat). For those who are interested in coming to future retreats, please keep in touch with the SCAAA officers for the next retreat schedule.