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Thursday, May 11, 2000 The Southern Cross, Page 9 Making an effective retreat today By Dan Luby Catholic News Service Some retreats today are silent, oth ers are filled with activities and con versation. Some follow a sharply de fined pattern, others are spontaneous and fluid. With all the possibilities, it’s hard to know what to expect. Here are six constants to bear in mind for making an effective retreat: —It’s about conversion. Whether focused on private conferences with a spiritual director, or group sharing around Scripture, or preaching on top ics of special interest, a retreat helps us to leave behind whatever interferes with our relationship with Jesus and each other. Re —Silence is golden. Whatever the format of the retreat, if it is going to help us toward spiritual growth it must include silence. For all but the most advanced souls, the interior quiet necessary to attend to God’s call requires at least a measure of external quiet too. It is important to take the opportunity to enter into some silent waiting. —Pay attention. People who sought guidance from the early Christian monks who fled to the desert in pur suit of holiness often were urged to “stay awake.” The idea was to culti vate a keener sense of God’s presence. It is easy to live on automatic pilot, sleep-walking through life. A retreat is a time to attend closely to things we take for granted: the world around us, treats help us get back on course. —It’s not busi ness as usual. The image of the desert is helpful here. In the desert, away from ordinary comforts and daily stresses that preoccupy us and distract our attention from what is impor tant, we can focus on the things that matter: friendship with Jesus and the community life in the church, which supports that friendship. To go on retreat is deliberately to live differently, if only for a short time, so that when we return to our routine we can see it afresh. In the desert, away from ordinary comforts and daily stresseswe can focus on the things that matter: the patterns of our life’s story, God’s generosity and mercv. —Take something to read. The Bible has pride of place on retreats as a source of inspiration, enlighten ment, comfort. Reading the Scrip tures meditatively always enriches us. Depending on circumstances it may also be helpful to read stories of holy people, reflections on the spiri tual life, or poems and prayers that speak to conversion. —God is at work. The relative pas sivity of a retreat makes many people uncomfortable. It is important to give time to leisurely walks, or admiring the scenery, or just sitting in a quiet place. Schedules for retreats may be set by leaders, but the agenda — the plan of what really happens to those making the retreat — is always God’s. (Luby is director of the Division of Christian Formation for the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas.) friendship with Jesus and the com munity life in the church, which sup ports that friendship.” In 0 Nutshell How can we open our eyes to what lies beneath the surface of our lives'? Desert experiences” are times when people encounter both the best and the worst in themselves, when they must make important decisions about which way to go. These experiences are common. The difficulties of “desert” times or “wilderness” times can make them turning points. These experiences can lead to conversion. CNS photo by Bill Wittman How our “deserts” redirect our gaze All contents copyright ©2000 by CNS By Patricia Kobielus Thompson Catholic News Service Could the spirituality of St. John of the Cross, a 16th-century Carmelite friar, possibly transform our modern “desert” experiences? Can the reflec tions of this Spanish mystical poet touch our hearts where our deepest aspirations dwell? I found a surprising answer to these questions in a recent journey back in time where I met this saint face to face through several of his mystical treatises. What I encoun tered profoundly changed my outlook on the times in which we live. Our frantic, pluralistic, 21st-cen tury society creates new idols at every turn. Hopes for more beautiful bodies, more brilliant minds, faster trips up corporate ladders and “feel-good” spiri tualities abound in media presenta tions. Modern-day idols, our own golden calves, promise fulfillment. We groom our outer beings while skimming over the surface of our deepest longings. Hopes of professional advancement frequently are dashed by the realities of corporate mergers, takeovers in which we are just one more cog in the wheel. Where do we turn for transforma tion on the deepest level? St. John of the Cross, though firmly steeped in a historical milieu of artistic and literary renaissance, nev ertheless experienced tremendous dis illusionment and personal persecu tion. His times were fraught with sus picion, extending even to the ranks of his own beloved church, where those who experienced personal spiritual revelations were assiduously moni tored. John’s attempts at reforming what he saw to be abuses in religious life were stifled by unscrupulous supe riors. Yet, amid these trials he held firm to his faith in God. On the surface, John’s work might appear morbid, for he counsels “let ting go” to a strong degree, even of the positive elements in life. But ground ing his entire outlook was his com plete trust in the God who constantly beckoned him to relationship. FAITH IN THE MARKETPLACE Tell of a retreat you found beneficial. What made it “work” for you? “I was amazed how enriching a ‘silent retreat’ could be. I am a gregarious, extroverted, high- strung, busy woman, and it was incredible to learn how much easier it was to listen to God and respond to him when I couldn’t converse with others.” — Susan Griggs, Ocean Springs, Miss. “A Cursillo retreat ... offered several witness talks — people opening themselves up to the struggles they’ve had.... The whole experience made me better appreciate God in my life every day.” — Catherine Birdwell, Brentwood, Tenn. An upcoming edition asks: How do families help children discover the meaning of respect? If you would like to respond for possible publication, please write: Faith Alive! 3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-1100. Modern society clings to surface ap pearances in its efforts to find security and wholeness. Yet beneath the sur face there murmurs an incessant yearning for an ultimate reality not- so-easily captured. A vivid example is our unwilling ness to face the reality of death. We attempt to destroy its reality with youth-enhancing creams, potions and pills. Yet, when we sit silently beside a dying person’s bed we enter the word less realm of personal presence — where we meet each other without our lives’ external trappings. St. John understood this. His voice echoes across five centuries, calling us to open the eyes of our hearts to what lies beneath the surface of our lives. Our personal desert experiences, our disillusionments, disappoint ments, upheavals — these are areas where soul-surrender of the type John counsels will lead us along the path of spiritual healing. Our choice to follow this path is the first step on a long spiritual journey, fraught at times with awareness of our own human powerlessness. Our “unknowns” lose their terror. Our disappointments lose their sting. Our investments in surface consola tions lose their tenacious hold over our hearts. Looking beneath the surface of our lives, we intuitively perceive the di vine in all we love. Yet we have the courage not to cling to it. We joyfully accept and willingly release all that blesses us, finding its worth — now and in our future — with God, who provides us and those we love with ultimate, unconditional security. We step confidently into the embrace of our Creator, who, lifting us above the fray, calms the rough waters of daily human life. Such wisdom, understood over the centuries, offers strength and peace in all aspects of our lives. (Thompson, a certified hospice nurse, recently completed a doctorate in theology with a focus on spiritual ity and health care.)