An Invitation to a Retreat (6)

Be Still and Know

An Invitation to a Retreat (6)

Be Still and Know

An Invitation to a Retreat (5)

The participants were invited to assess the state of their spiritual life at the present moment and express it as a plasticine sculpture. Which one do you think is mine?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

An Invitation to a Retreat (5)

The participants were invited to assess the state of their spiritual life at the present moment and express it as a plasticine sculpture. Which one do you think is mine?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

An Invitation to a Retreat (4)

Conducted a guided retreat on the theme Be Still and Know at Gethsemanne Retreat Centre/Reconre in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan from 25-27 October 2008.

An Invitation to a Retreat (4)

Conducted a guided retreat on the theme Be Still and Know at Gethsemanne Retreat Centre/Reconre in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan from 25-27 October 2008.

An Invitation to a Retreat (3)

A Retreat Prayer

Lord, here we are in Your presence. We have left behind our families, our jobs, our responsibilities and obligations, our friends and community to be with You in this retreat. Let us place the care and protection of our families, our jobs, our responsibilities and obligations, our friends and community in Your care and protection. Give us the peace and confidence that You will take good care of them in our absence.

Father, we approach You with great expectations and fear. We have high expectations in this encounter with you. Yet we are fearful because in Your light and holiness, we may discover things about ourselves that we are not comfortable with. Help us to discover and face the truth about ourselves. May the Holy Spirit works powerfully within our hearts, minds, and souls. May we rediscover ourselves in new ways and give us the strength to be transformed to the likeness of Your Son. Give us more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Father, we ask for a more intense revelation of Yourself to us in this retreat. We want to know You, know more of You and to love You. Help us to break the many false concepts of You that we have developed over the years, some of which we have made into idols. Help us to know You as revealed in Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Give us the grace to follow you. The road ahead is hard and rugged. We are afraid, O Lord. We are afraid of pain and suffering. We are afraid of things that you may ask us to give up. We are afraid of illness, loneliness, dryness, despair and constant stress. Know our weaknesses and be gentle with us. Forgive us in our failures when You test us. As you make a saint of St. Peter, make a saint of us, we pray.

Most of all, Lord. We ask that You will show us the splendour of what You have given us: our life in You; a life lived here on earth with Christ. We ask that You show us and lead us into simplicity of life and of heart. Lord, help us to know You in our daily life, to know You in the breaking of bread, in song, in fellowship, and in the cleansing of our hearts by penitence and prayer.

In the Name of Your Son we pray.

Amen

An Invitation to a Retreat (3)

A Retreat Prayer

Lord, here we are in Your presence. We have left behind our families, our jobs, our responsibilities and obligations, our friends and community to be with You in this retreat. Let us place the care and protection of our families, our jobs, our responsibilities and obligations, our friends and community in Your care and protection. Give us the peace and confidence that You will take good care of them in our absence.

Father, we approach You with great expectations and fear. We have high expectations in this encounter with you. Yet we are fearful because in Your light and holiness, we may discover things about ourselves that we are not comfortable with. Help us to discover and face the truth about ourselves. May the Holy Spirit works powerfully within our hearts, minds, and souls. May we rediscover ourselves in new ways and give us the strength to be transformed to the likeness of Your Son. Give us more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Father, we ask for a more intense revelation of Yourself to us in this retreat. We want to know You, know more of You and to love You. Help us to break the many false concepts of You that we have developed over the years, some of which we have made into idols. Help us to know You as revealed in Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Give us the grace to follow you. The road ahead is hard and rugged. We are afraid, O Lord. We are afraid of pain and suffering. We are afraid of things that you may ask us to give up. We are afraid of illness, loneliness, dryness, despair and constant stress. Know our weaknesses and be gentle with us. Forgive us in our failures when You test us. As you make a saint of St. Peter, make a saint of us, we pray.

Most of all, Lord. We ask that You will show us the splendour of what You have given us: our life in You; a life lived here on earth with Christ. We ask that You show us and lead us into simplicity of life and of heart. Lord, help us to know You in our daily life, to know You in the breaking of bread, in song, in fellowship, and in the cleansing of our hearts by penitence and prayer.

In the Name of Your Son we pray.

Amen

An Invitation to a Retreat (2)

It is more than rest that Jesus receives in his retreats. He also gets wisdom. “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles…”(Luke 6:12-13). These twelve men will transform the world and brings God’s plan of redemption to another level. The wisdom comes from being in the presence of God. To achieve this type of wisdom needs trust.

For us, a spiritual retreat requires trust in the Holy Spirit. A retreat is not like a church camp, a conference or a vacation- where activities may be planned in advance and we know the agenda (mostly to have a good time, hopefully to learn something). In a retreat, we do not know what God has in store for us, but we are willing to take the risk to find out. We participate in confidence that the Holy Spirit is entirely trustworthy and will never lead us to harm.

There is a need for us to persist in Scripture reading, journal and prayer even though the silence and solitude frightens us. In a group retreat, there is a strong temptation to flee the presence of God into the company of friends where it is safe and comfortable. To engage in idle group gossip takes our attention from having to be silent before the Lord, and the discomfort of the work of the Holy Spirit on our souls. However it is to our good that we persist. The Psalmist says,

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. (Psalm 91:1-4)

It is in a spiritual retreat that you have the time and opportunity to discover who you are, and to whom do you belong. That is wisdom indeed.

.

An Invitation to a Retreat (2)

It is more than rest that Jesus receives in his retreats. He also gets wisdom. “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles…”(Luke 6:12-13). These twelve men will transform the world and brings God’s plan of redemption to another level. The wisdom comes from being in the presence of God. To achieve this type of wisdom needs trust.

For us, a spiritual retreat requires trust in the Holy Spirit. A retreat is not like a church camp, a conference or a vacation- where activities may be planned in advance and we know the agenda (mostly to have a good time, hopefully to learn something). In a retreat, we do not know what God has in store for us, but we are willing to take the risk to find out. We participate in confidence that the Holy Spirit is entirely trustworthy and will never lead us to harm.

There is a need for us to persist in Scripture reading, journal and prayer even though the silence and solitude frightens us. In a group retreat, there is a strong temptation to flee the presence of God into the company of friends where it is safe and comfortable. To engage in idle group gossip takes our attention from having to be silent before the Lord, and the discomfort of the work of the Holy Spirit on our souls. However it is to our good that we persist. The Psalmist says,

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. (Psalm 91:1-4)

It is in a spiritual retreat that you have the time and opportunity to discover who you are, and to whom do you belong. That is wisdom indeed.

.

Invitation to a Retreat (1)

There must be times in your life that you yearn for more of God than your schedule will allow. We all have. We are tired, stressed by our jobs, crowded by friends and burdened by obligations. We have abundant life but are too busy for it! Even good obligations and commitments can turn toxic to our soul. Christian author, Madeleine L’Engle resonates within us when she writes in A Circle of Quiet that “(e)very so often I need a OUT; something will throw me into total disproportion, and I have to get away from everyone- away from all those people I love most in the world-in order to regain a sense of proportion.” However this is more than just a need to get away. There is also a need to get to (somewhere). And in our case, the need is to get to the presence of God. In other words, we need to go to a spiritual retreat.

“Spiritual retreat,” explains Emilie Griffin in Wilderness Time, “is simply a matter of going into a separate place to seek Christian growth in a disciplined way. Retreat offers us the grace to be ourselves in God’s presence without self-consciousness, without masquerade. Retreat provides the chance to spend time generously in the presence of God. In such time, God helps us to empty ourselves of cares and anxieties, to be filled with wisdom that restores us.”

Jesus himself sought times of quiet and solitude. The evangelist Mark tells us in middle of a busy schedule, “(v)ery early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"” (Mark 1:35-37). This is not an isolated incident for Jesus. After his miraculous feeding of the five thousand, “(i)mmediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray” (Mark 6:56-46).

The evangelist Matthew too made a similar observation of Jesus: “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23). Luke too remarks on this peculiar characteristic of Jesus: “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:15-16). It appears that the more his fame spreads, the more he is in demand as a teacher and healer, the more Jesus looks for a quiet place, to be away from the crowd that he serves. And what does he do when he is alone? He prays. He commune with his Father. As soldiers in battle in the frontline need to be rotated back to the rear to rest or team sportspersons have time out, Jesus after every spiritual battle needs a retreat; a retreat, not in the sense of a setback but in the concept of a timeout. It is in his Father that Jesus finds rest.

.

Invitation to a Retreat (1)

There must be times in your life that you yearn for more of God than your schedule will allow. We all have. We are tired, stressed by our jobs, crowded by friends and burdened by obligations. We have abundant life but are too busy for it! Even good obligations and commitments can turn toxic to our soul. Christian author, Madeleine L’Engle resonates within us when she writes in A Circle of Quiet that “(e)very so often I need a OUT; something will throw me into total disproportion, and I have to get away from everyone- away from all those people I love most in the world-in order to regain a sense of proportion.” However this is more than just a need to get away. There is also a need to get to (somewhere). And in our case, the need is to get to the presence of God. In other words, we need to go to a spiritual retreat.

“Spiritual retreat,” explains Emilie Griffin in Wilderness Time, “is simply a matter of going into a separate place to seek Christian growth in a disciplined way. Retreat offers us the grace to be ourselves in God’s presence without self-consciousness, without masquerade. Retreat provides the chance to spend time generously in the presence of God. In such time, God helps us to empty ourselves of cares and anxieties, to be filled with wisdom that restores us.”

Jesus himself sought times of quiet and solitude. The evangelist Mark tells us in middle of a busy schedule, “(v)ery early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"” (Mark 1:35-37). This is not an isolated incident for Jesus. After his miraculous feeding of the five thousand, “(i)mmediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray” (Mark 6:56-46).

The evangelist Matthew too made a similar observation of Jesus: “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23). Luke too remarks on this peculiar characteristic of Jesus: “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:15-16). It appears that the more his fame spreads, the more he is in demand as a teacher and healer, the more Jesus looks for a quiet place, to be away from the crowd that he serves. And what does he do when he is alone? He prays. He commune with his Father. As soldiers in battle in the frontline need to be rotated back to the rear to rest or team sportspersons have time out, Jesus after every spiritual battle needs a retreat; a retreat, not in the sense of a setback but in the concept of a timeout. It is in his Father that Jesus finds rest.

.