A 24 Hour Retreat

One of my plans this year is to focus more on my personal connection with God. One of the things I have discovered over the almost thirty years I have been in pastoral ministry is how easy it is to help others with their spiritual questions while never taking the time to address one's own. This past year has been particularly trying for me personally with some church issues, personal issues and some family health issues so I have thought it best to go deeper in my relationship with God in turn begin to wrestle with the issues that crop up from time to time. In turn this will serve to help me be more grounded in my ministry in the church and in turn approach the difficult issues that will come my way in the future, which I am sure they will.

With all that said, I signed up for a series of retreats this year through our regional office and have just completed the first of these a 24 hour retreat at Shantivanam. You can check out their web site by following this link: http://www.shantivanam.com/home.html

Shantivanam House of prayer is the prayer retreat center for the Archdiocese of Kansas City Kansas. It is located far way from the noises and lights of the city and was for me a place of quiet reflection. Some retreat centers are geared toward group retreats but Shativanam is set up for personal retreats.

The cabins we were given were designed for one person, set in a wooded setting where one was away from everyone. From my cabin you could not see anything but trees and forest. What I noticed at first was the quiet. In a world filled with noise I have lost the importance of silence. The scripture which came to mind was Elijah experience of God not in the earthquake or the storm but in the sound of shear silence.

Athough it was only 24 hours I was able to in my reading, praying, walking the many trails and sitting by the pond encounter a sense of peace in my soul with the person God has created in me. I took time to read, nap, reflect and encounter a closness with God provided by the creation all around me.

One of the final encounters I had during my time there was while hiking to see a particualr view I encountered a terrapin on the trail. He saw me a ducked his head back in his shell waiting for me to walk by. And as I returned down the trail he had moved a few feet off to one side moving ever so slowly making his way back into the woods but when he saw me again the head went into hiding. It had been years since I had seen a terrapin in the wild. I would see them all the time as a child when I visited my grandparents in Missouri. I have often sought to be the opposite of the terrapin moving from one thing to another very quickly but the slow movement reminds me of how much can be missed when moving quickly.

I learned my my experience on retreat the importance of slowing down and reflecting and filling up with the presence of God. When I do I begin to gain the refreshment needed for difficult times.