This Lent Discover God's Love In A Retreat - St. Augustine Catholic
This Lent Discover God's Love In A Retreat - St. Augustine Catholic
This Lent Discover God's Love In A Retreat - St. Augustine Catholic
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Within the first two decades of the 20th<br />
century, although retreat directors were still<br />
usually priests, lay people began to organize<br />
and promote their own retreats.<br />
Lay men and women were beginning to<br />
recognize the importance of regular spiritual<br />
retreats for all the faithful and initially<br />
sought to share the spirituality of religious<br />
communities.<br />
Lay retreat leagues were developed and<br />
looked to religious communities for ways to<br />
adapt their particular charism and<br />
spiritual practices to everyday life.<br />
Finally, in the period of time<br />
immediately before and following<br />
the Second Vatican Council, the<br />
importance of developing a<br />
spiritual life received a new<br />
emphasis and breadth in the<br />
church.<br />
Vatican II’s Dogmatic<br />
Constitution on the Church<br />
proclaimed that all believers are<br />
called to the “fullness of Christian<br />
life and the perfection of love.”<br />
No longer only an obligation of<br />
clergy and religious, now the<br />
church called all the faithful to<br />
grow in holiness and to witness to<br />
God’s presence in the midst of<br />
their lives.<br />
<strong>This</strong> new and more expansive<br />
vision of <strong>Catholic</strong> spiritual life<br />
raised many important questions<br />
about the role of retreats. If<br />
retreats are not just a spiritual<br />
exercise for those with a special<br />
call to religious life, retreat<br />
ministry must now serve a much<br />
wider audience with a more<br />
diverse range of experiences and<br />
expectations.<br />
<strong>In</strong> the 21st century, retreat<br />
centers will need to continue to<br />
adapt old retreat models and develop new,<br />
more accessible ones to help us reflect on<br />
the extraordinary presence of God in the<br />
ordinary experiences of our life. Their<br />
mission will be to find and offer many<br />
different ways of sharing the “good news” of<br />
God’s promise with everyone.<br />
<strong>Retreat</strong> Programs<br />
<strong>In</strong> recent years the challenge to develop<br />
programs to meet the spiritual needs of all<br />
the faithful has resulted in a much greater<br />
variety of retreats. There is an increasing<br />
appreciation among retreat leaders and<br />
participants that different types of retreats<br />
are necessary to support many different<br />
spiritual journeys.<br />
<strong>Retreat</strong> centers have found that no<br />
single kind of retreat can address every<br />
important topic; provide every spiritual<br />
exercise; or focus on every life issue which<br />
may concern retreatants.<br />
Linda Frano said she needed to get away to prepare for Christmas. She<br />
signed up for a Silent <strong>Retreat</strong> at Marywood and took full advantage of<br />
the beautiful surroundings to become closer to God.<br />
Even the context may change. At times<br />
retreatants need to be quiet and alone. At<br />
other times group discussion is more<br />
suitable. Even the length may vary from a<br />
day to more than a week depending on<br />
personal availability and program<br />
intensity. All retreats can only be judged,<br />
finally, by how well they provide a safe<br />
place to explore the unique revelations of<br />
the Spirit in our daily lives.<br />
Although retreat centers are continually<br />
expanding the kinds of retreats they offer,<br />
most retreats fall into one of the following<br />
categories.<br />
The most common type of retreat is a<br />
Preached or Conference <strong>Retreat</strong>. <strong>This</strong><br />
retreat format is especially good for large<br />
groups centering around a theme like<br />
prayer, scripture, Jesus, or particular life<br />
issues. At this type of retreat a presenter or<br />
retreat leader provides one or more talks<br />
with periods of individual or group<br />
reflection. It often lasts for a<br />
weekend, but it may be shorter<br />
or conducted in a series of<br />
shorter meetings over two or<br />
more weeks.<br />
Another popular kind of retreat<br />
is called a Vocational, Lifestyle,<br />
or Commitment <strong>Retreat</strong>.<br />
Most often identified with<br />
Marriage Encounter and<br />
Engaged Encounter programs,<br />
this type of retreat focuses on<br />
the experiences and needs of<br />
one or more persons in a vowed<br />
relationship. While similar in<br />
structure to thematic retreats,<br />
these retreats are based more on<br />
the life situations and skills<br />
necessary to meet the demands<br />
of long term commitments.<br />
Some retreatants prefer meeting<br />
with smaller groups of five to 10<br />
persons for a Guided <strong>Retreat</strong>.<br />
Guided <strong>Retreat</strong>s typically invite<br />
participants to gather for a daily<br />
conference and then spend the<br />
rest of the day on their own. A<br />
Terry Wilmot<br />
spiritual director may be<br />
available for personal<br />
consultation, but there are no<br />
other individual or group<br />
meetings.<br />
Another familiar retreat context is<br />
the Directed <strong>Retreat</strong> or <strong>In</strong>dividual Directed<br />
<strong>Retreat</strong>. <strong>This</strong> is primarily a more extended<br />
retreat experience lasting from five to 30 days.<br />
It focuses on personal or individual spiritual<br />
needs and experiences with daily meetings for<br />
spiritual direction. During one or more<br />
sessions each day the director facilitates<br />
individual prayer and provides reflection<br />
material for individual meditation.<br />
A combination of elements from both<br />
Continued on page 18<br />
ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2001 17