RETREAT

COME AND SEE RETREAT

SPIRITUAL  EXERCISES:

“FAITH IS TO RELIGION AS CREDIT IS TO BUSINESS !”

v Where am I whith my God, whith  myself and with others?

v  What do I desire from this retreat?

v What does God desire from me in this retreat?

FIRST SECTION

OUR ONLY DESIRE AND OUR ONE CHOICE SHOULD BE THIS: “I WANT AND CHOOSE WHAT BETTER LEADS TO GOD’S DEEPENING LIFE IN ME”.

Focus on what grace do I want to ask God for: Peace, Generosity, Open heart, Forgiveness etc.

This is a moment of awareness and listening, relaxes, and rest. Otherwise we cannot catch up with Jesus.

1 Sam 3:1-10 “Speak Lord your servant is listening” V7 “As yet Samuel had no knowledge of Yahweh  and the word of God had not yet been revealed to him”.

Lk 10:38-42 “Mary sat down at the Lord’s feet and listening to him speaking”.

Ps 61 “In God alone my soul at rest”.

Ps 131 “ I hold myself in quiet and silence like a little child”.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS RETREAT?

 Purposes of this retreat are;

Ø Conquest of self.

Ø Regulation of one’s life.

Ø A time to appreciate and be more aware of God’s personal love for me.

Ø A time to look at my priorities, and commitments.

Ø A time to decide to love the Lord with all my heart, soul and strength.

Ø A time of discernment.

I have been created to:

v Know God

v Love God

v Serve God

v Praise God

v To be with Him forever and ever.

All other things on this earth are created for us to help us to attain the end for which we have been created.

I am therefore,  to make use of them in so far as they help me to attain my end, and I must get rid of them in so far as they prove a hindrance to me.

Texts:

Ps 139 Nearness of God: How well God knows me and how close God is to me.

Ps 42:1-11 As a deer longs for stream  of cool water,  so I long for you, O God………

Second section

Religion and faith is a search for ultimate, highest meaning in life. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you o Lord” (ST. Augustine)

We all search and thirst for that ultimate union with the creator, We are from the creator and to the creator we shall return. We all need someone or something to live for. 

Here is a beautiful story to illustrate this: There is a friend of mine, a lady 88 years old who lost her husband 15 yrs ago. Every time she calls me on the phone she says: Oh my son Eleuter I miss my husband terribly in my old age. He loved me very much in our joyful married life and I to loved Him. Now I really miss him. I hope to see him in next life. Please pray for us. I am living only in the hope of meeting my husband in Jesus.

This is certainly a beautiful couple to admire. What a beautiful married life they lived as expressed in this few words.

You and I need to have something or somebody to live for especially every successive stage of our lives. We need to make the choice but also make sure that we make the right choice in life. You and I are invited to make a live by meaningful choices, decisions and commitments in life, for the living situations of our lives change from time to time and from place to place. This was the experience of Abraham, of Jesus and of the apostles.

The more I come closer to Jesus the more simpler, humble, and hidden, more trusting, more open, more evangelical more rooted and more peaceful I become.

We know that there is herd long journey ahead of us. This is a journey of leaving everything for Jesus’ sake.

There is a way of living, eating, being with people, caring for people, drinking, sleeping, reading and writing in which Jesus in truly the centre.

How do I find this? “Be faithful in your adoration”. Note here that I do not say: Prayer, Meditation, Contemplation.

In “adoration” all the attention must be on Jesus and not on me. To adore is be drawn away from my own preoccupations into the presence of Jesus. It means letting go what I want, desire, and have planned and fully trusting Jesus and his love.

“MODEL YOURSELVES TO THE PETTERN OF CHRIST”

“DO NOT BE CONQUERED BY EVIL BUT CONQUER EVIL WITH GOOD”

Forgive and forget: Two friends were walking through the desert. At a certain point during the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything wrote in the sand:

“TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE”

They kept on walking until they found an Oasis (a place with water in the desert), they decided to take a bath. The one who was slapped stuck in the mud and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

“TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE”

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “  After I hurt you, You wrote in the sand and now you write on the stone. Why?

  

There other friend replied: “when someone hurts us we should write it down in the sand where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CURVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

(WRITTEN BY ENV. ELIUTA MANGE)