Our apostolate is to provide a place of retreat for individuals where the Catholic Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, and Confession are available on site daily. We expect to be able to receive retreatants soon.
The norm will be individual and self-directed silent retreats. A retreatant can follow his or her own schedule, yet is invited to the communal times of prayer throughout each day as a suggested schedule. If requested, directed retreats, spiritual direction, and pastoral counseling will be available from a Catholic priest of the Latin Rite.
A retreat can be one day or several days, but the maximum stay is set at ten days per month, concurrent or cumulative. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco will not be permitted. It will be a place where individuals can find spiritual support, encouragement, and direction for living free from various addictions and codependencies.
Noise, noise, noise. Busy, busy, busy.
Why? What are we doing? Let us think about something for a minute. Our wealth and affluence is becoming our downfall. It doesn’t have be that way, but to a large extent our desire for comfort is making us soft. Do we not go from moment to moment, day to day, doing all sorts of things, to avoid feeling any discomfort and pain? Hungry? Order a pizza. Eat some chips. Lonely? Watch a movie. Feel a bit down? Go buy some new clothes or a new gadget, or a new car! Most people have the means to do all sorts of things to artificially avoid feeling discomfort, and this, I propose to you, prevents us from being fully human and reaching the heights and depths of our true potentials. I’m not saying affluence is evil. I’m not saying that eating pizza or chips, or enjoying movies or other entertainment, or buying frivolous or luxury items is necessarily bad either. On the contrary, these things can be quite good. What I am saying however, is that for many of us all sorts of things have distracted us from the real and substantial meaning and purpose of life.
Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his soul?” Mark 8:36. Are we not compulsive slaves in some way to our ‘smart’ phones? Deep deep down, do you not yearn for some peace and quiet? How about a taste of true freedom and the peace that the world cannot give? Consider a silent retreat.
It might be uncomfortable or even painful at first, but it will be good for your soul! Allow some perhaps unknown repressed things to surface. And let some of those things you might have consciously avoided to come to the light and the fresh air, and give yourself the opportunity to heal. Get away from the exterior noise for a while. Confront the interior noise. After a bit of time with your own thoughts, even the interior noise will pass. Then you might even hear a still quiet voice like Elijah did:
“And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13 And when Eli′jah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” 1 Kings 19:11b-13a.
Come. This place is for you.
The Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the Serenity,
To Accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference.
An Act of Contrition
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee. I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but mostly because my sins offend thee my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins, do penance, amend my life, and avoid the occasions of sin. Amen.
