The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese o... by Jacques Philippe

Retreats are very helpful for vocational discernment, times of transition, and deeper healing. Many school and parish staffs often make retreats prior to a new academic year. Retreats are vital in the life of the Church!Ĭanon Law requires that seminarians preparing for ordination and religious preparing for solemn vows must make a retreat prior to these permanent commitments.Ĭandidates for Confirmation and couples preparing for Marriage are often required to make retreats. They provide the opportunity for deeper conversion and growth in holiness. Retreats can also give you time for you to examine any important decisions you are making. Retreats also help you better understand your gifts and the way that God wants you to shine as a light to our dark world. The Holy Spirit will help you conform these desires to the will of our heavenly Father. As you take time in prayer and Scripture, you will more clearly understand your hopes and desires.

Retreats help you listen to God more closely. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).ĭo you know the voice of the Good Shepherd? Retreats provide an environment of silence, waiting, and listening for God to speak.ĭo you remember how Elijah found God in the quiet breeze (1 Kings 19:12)? Retreats open yourself to actively listen to the voice of God and more deeply understand His desire for your life. Retreats helps our souls become “rich soil” that can produce fruit “a hundred or sixty or thirty fold” (Matthew 13:8). When we step away from our routines and relationships, the Father will fill us with His life and grace so that we will grow in holiness in our vocations. He must have returned to His disciples refreshed, refocused, and ready to bear more fruit in the Kingdom of God. He left His disciples for a little while so that He could be with His Father. Jesus shows us the importance of stepping away from our normal routines. Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place, where He prayed. Have you followed Jesus’ example in Mark 1:35? Have you taken time recently to recharge your spiritual batteries? But my spiritual life? How often do I fill it? Refuel it? Charge it? When was the last time you went on a retreat?

The Way of Trust and Love - A Retreat Guided By St. Therese o... by Jacques Philippe