You must be willing to make this retreat. Are you disposed? Do you feel the need? Feel good about having come over here. Are you prepared? Preparation for prayer is as important as prayer itself. It’s like preparation for a travel. Travel is crucial, but without preparation travel won’t be possible.
We have not come here to get entertained. We may or may not have a good time. Some things may be okay, some may not be up to the mark or up to our taste. But the important thing is the “retreat experience.” I have come here for a special purpose: I’ve come here for a retreat.
Physical rest is important. Sleep well. Eat well too.
Without silence, this retreat will be a disaster. Inner silence and outer silence. After achieving the outer silence, please aim at inner silence, inner calm and tranquility.
Need motivation and determination. Garfield: “I’m not lazy, I’m motivationally challenged.” (I’m not lazy, I’m in an energy-save mode.) [“If I cannot convince them, I shall confuse them.”]
You will encounter God if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deut 4:29).
The concern in this retreat is not logical, but practical. The stress will be on one’s Inner Life. Our foremost concern is to experience and taste God.
Desires. We have lots of desires. During this retreat too, lots of them will surface and even distract us. Many say or even think that we must control the desires; we ought to overcome them. But still, being is desiring. Our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls are full of desires. Some are unruly, turbulent, distracting. Some desires make us think deep thoughts and see great visions; some teach us how to love; and some keep us searching for God. Amidst all these, our desire for God is the desire that should guide all other desires. Otherwise our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls become one another’s enemies and our inner lives become chaotic, leading us to despair and self-destruction. So befriend your inner self. Accept whatever comes your way.
This retreat is not a way to overcome desires, least of all, to eradicate desires. This retreat must help us to order our desires, so that they can serve one another and together serve God.
Discipline of retreat. Retreat means ‘to withdraw.’ Retreat is a desert experience (Mark 1:12-13) as the Spirit led (drove) Jesus into the wilderness (desert), just after his baptism. Jesus first of all meets wild beasts and only then the angels. In our experience we shall meet with negativity and hard experiences (wild beasts), but also inspirations (angels). As Israel is born as a nation in the desert, you too will find your Belovedness in the desert.
We will discover ourselves and discover God in this desert experience. The more you believe in God, the more you will believe in yourselves. Thomas Merton says: **
Place of solitude – withdrawal from the world, our concerns, cares, even our problems.
Desert = poverty = nothingness = nada or nihil = emptiness. When we are nothing, we are in a fine position to receive everything from God. I must be “nothing” in order to be open to all of reality and new reality.
To bring some solitude into our lives is one of the most necessary but also most difficult disciplines. Even though we have a deep desire for real solitude, we also experience a certain apprehension as we approach that solitary place and time. As soon as we are alone – an inner chaos opens up in us. As soon as we are alone, without people to talk with, books to read, TV to watch, or phone calls to make, an inner chaos opens up. (Bible alone would do.) That lonely, deserted place...
Phil 2:12-13, “Keep on working to complete your salvation, because God is always at work in you to make you willing.”
Progress, not perfection. Though our aim is to be as perfect as our heavenly Father, we need to begin with baby steps. “Even a thousand-mile journey starts with a single step.” Be patient with yourself. Feel good about the time given to you for prayer, don’t feel forced or compelled. But your efforts are needed, without them you will not know what is in store for you, what is kept for you by the Lord. St Ignatius of Loyola, “Pray a minute or two extra when you want to finish... – prolong a little longer.” Therefore, we need the discipline of prayer.
Preparation for prayer is as important as the prayer moments themselves.
At the end of the retreat, your prayer must become simple. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done my work, or the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have.
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