Busy Person's Retreat - Day Five and Last Day

Hi all!  Today was the last day of retreat.

Sister and I discussed how the retreat went and what I learned from it.  We also talked about free will and making choices.  Sense a theme?  We also talked about internal motivation.

I'm glad I did the Busy Person's Retreat.  The experience is different for everyone so I hope if you get a chance to do a similar retreat, you do :)

Busy Person's Retreat - Day Four

Remind me why I signed up for this again?

I don't know what I was thinking.  I must be really desperate that anything is better than working on my dissertation.

So today we discussed my prayer life, or the lack there of.  We talked about some other stuff too.  A little bit about vocations as well.

My assignment is to think about and reflect (for 30 minutes..for real this time) the question Jesus asks the blind man.

Last night, the retreat had Mass and dinner cooked by the amazing chef Fr. B followed by a talk on vocations.  I missed the Mass because I was in class.  I did make it in time for dinner....  We had a sister from Most Precious Blood and from Daughters of Charity and 2 postulants from the Daughters of St. Paul.  They all shared their vocation story.  Liz, the campus minister, would like to remind everyone that everyone has a vocation, whether it is to the single life, religious life or married life.

Busy Person's Retreat - Day Three

Good Afternoon!

Today's retreat session was a little uhm rough.  The best part is when I said something about the Church and a bible fell over.  I kid you not.

We talked a little bit about my choices or lack there of.  Refusing to make a choice is still a choice BTW.  We talked a bit about how I'm not very good at this prayer thing.  Talked a little bit about how I am precious in God's eyes and how I don't really buy into that.  Oh and we talked about the gifts God may have given them and how wasting them isn't such a good idea...

In short, it wasn't sunshine and rainbows.

Today's Assignment (in which I will spend 30 continuous minutes reflecting on):  Isaiah 49:15-16

Above all, trust in the slow work of God

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages,

We are impatient of being on the way to do something

unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ

Busy Person's Retreat - Day Two

Good Morning again.

This morning I met individually with my spiritual companion, Sister C.  We started with prayer and a few moments of silence.  I caught her up with my life and all its fascinating (or lack there of) happenings.

We talked about choices and choosing to be clueless to God's plan for me.  We talked a little about God's plan for me.  We talked about trust.  Somehow, we talked about my dissertation.  I have a sinking suspicion God would like me to work on it and finish it...

My assignment:  Isaiah 43:1-4

We ended with Namaste

“Nothing is more practical than finding God,

 that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. 

What you are in love with, 

what seizes your imagination 

will affect everything.

 It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, 

what you will do with your evenings, 

how you spend your weekends

, what you read, 

who you know, 

what breaks your heart,

 and what amazes you 

with joy and gratitude. 

Fall in love,

 stay in love, 

and it will decide everything.”

-Pedro Arrupe SJ

Busy Person's Retreat - Day One

Good Morning!
It was so late last night I wasn't able to blog about the first day of the retreat.

The group met for dinner (tacos...yum) to get to know everyone and the three different retreat guides, or spiritual companions.  Based on the conversation for dinner, you picked your guide after dinner.  There was then an orientation with the whole group.

We talked about how the retreat worked and the six P's for listening to God (prepare, place, posture, passage, pause, pray).  Basically it is a 30-30 retreat. You spend 30 minutes in prayer and 30 minutes with your spiritual companion.  We then practiced reading with the Scriptures using the Gospel for Sunday.

We then met with our spiritual companion to organize the rest of the week.  My spiritual companion, Sister C, created a booklet for us with assignments, reflections and passages for the entire week.  However, this could change based on the direction of our talks.

My assignment for Day 1:  Jeremiah 29:11-14  God apparently has plans for me.  I really wish he would tell me what they are....

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me. 
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, 
and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. 

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you and 
I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.

And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road 
although I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always 
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, 
I will not fear, f
or you are ever with me 
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton