Spiritually Retreating

The meaning of a spiritual retreat can be different for different religious communities. A retreat can either be a time of solitude or a community experience. Some retreats are held in silence, and on others there may be a great deal of conversation, depending on the understanding and accepted practices of the host facility and/or the participant(s). Retreats are often conducted at rural or remote locations, either privately, or at a retreat centre such as a monastery. Spiritual retreats allow time for reflection, prayer, or meditation. 

The Christian retreat can be defined in the most simplest of terms as a definite time (from a few hours in length to a month) spent away from one's normal life for the purpose of reconnecting, usually in prayer, with God. Although the practice of leaving one's everyday life to connect on a deeper level with God, be that in the desert or in a monastery, is as old as Christianity itself, the practice of spending a specific time away with God is a more modern phenomenon, dating from the 1520s and St. Ignatius of Loyola's composition of the Spiritual Exercises. Jesus fasting in the desert for forty days is used as a biblical justification of retreats.

Spiritual retreats can provide an opportunity to find deeper meaning to life and can be wonderfully uplifting and lead to greater fulfillment. Taking time out in a spiritual retreat and leaving behind the problems of our busy materialistic world can provide an opportunity to think more deeply about what is going on in our inner lives.

Throughout the ages wise people have realized that we live in two worlds at the same time, a physical outer world and a deeper inner spiritual world. The problem is that we get so absorbed by the state of our physical outer world that we don’t spend enough time on the spiritual world within us. How many people, for example, struggling in a gym to improve their physical well-being, would spend just a little time on spiritual exercises to help them develop their inner world? Is this not a distorted view of our priorities, showing a lack of spiritual wisdom?

But giving priority to a spiritual retreat can offer the time and place to re-connect with your inner self and with others and to develop a greater spiritual awareness of the world around.

I will be on retreat these next few days, seeking spiritual renewal and reconnection with God with colleagues in children’s and youth ministry. This will be a time of prayer for our youth and children, as well as their families, and for our church’s ministries in the lives of the children and youth we serve. Please add your prayers to my efforts as we all continue through this Season of Prayer.

Blessings,
Tracy