Kym and I have been in a course this week – the penultimate module in a two year Spiritual Direction training programme offered by the Jesuit Institute of South Africa. This week the course has focused on leading retreats. My experience of retreats over the years has been a quiet morning here and there, occasional ministers’ retreats where much of the time was taken up with talk and admin, and a couple of multi-day private retreats. But not much of any of these in the last couple of years.
It was clear however that our course leader had something completely different in mind! In the Ignatian tradition, to be on retreat often means an eight day guided retreat (mostly held in silence), where the retreatant sets aside three or four sessions through each day to pray and meets daily with a designated director to reflect on their experience of prayer. For eight days.
How does that sound to you? Terrifying? Tedious? Completely overwhelming? Or does it awaken a longing within you to draw aside from the noise and be with God. Launching straight into an eight day retreat wouldn’t be wise – we need to build up some experience of shorter retreats first – but intentionally carving out some time to retreat and be quiet must be a good thing. Anyone keen to join me?
It was clear however that our course leader had something completely different in mind! In the Ignatian tradition, to be on retreat often means an eight day guided retreat (mostly held in silence), where the retreatant sets aside three or four sessions through each day to pray and meets daily with a designated director to reflect on their experience of prayer. For eight days.
How does that sound to you? Terrifying? Tedious? Completely overwhelming? Or does it awaken a longing within you to draw aside from the noise and be with God. Launching straight into an eight day retreat wouldn’t be wise – we need to build up some experience of shorter retreats first – but intentionally carving out some time to retreat and be quiet must be a good thing. Anyone keen to join me?