Describe you best retreat

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Maranatha

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Please let us know where you took your best retreat and why you consider it your best? What did you get out of it?

Thanks.

:gopray:
 
Mine has more to do with the setting and arrangements af things but I hope this helps.
  1. It was on a lake area/ so we had one of the priests come for confessions, and I got to say my confession outside! I really liked that.
  2. Lots of music and singing!
  3. A candlelight vigil (you can have a statue of Mary, Jesus etc) it was very emotional… We had the younger students telling the older students( leaders) what they wanted them to pray for. Then everyone would reflect upon this… Or you didnt have to talk to someone if you didnt want to.
  4. Bible study
  5. Some kind of play
  6. Bonfire (if you can do it)
  7. Lots of prayers and study of the faith!
 
Oh and if its for teens, send a letter to the parents telling them to send letters to there children, and there are bags in the main area that have each teens name on it… and then they can write there friends messages too!
 
kristanl said:
Mine has more to do with the setting and arrangements af things but I hope this helps.
  1. It was on a lake area/ so we had one of the priests come for confessions, and I got to say my confession outside! I really liked that.
  2. Lots of music and singing!
  3. A candlelight vigil (you can have a statue of Mary, Jesus etc) it was very emotional… We had the younger students telling the older students( leaders) what they wanted them to pray for. Then everyone would reflect upon this… Or you didnt have to talk to someone if you didnt want to.
  4. Bible study
  5. Some kind of play
  6. Bonfire (if you can do it)
  7. Lots of prayers and study of the faith!
Click to expand...
This sounds a LOT like the camp I just went to–it’s called CYSC (www.cysc.com) and it’s in northeastern Ohio. Actually this sounds pretty much exactly, word for word, like that camp.

It’s an amazing recipe for a retreat and I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t absolutely transformed by the experience.
 
I just went on a retreat at St. Meinrad, a benedictine monastery in Southern Indiana. I loved the LOTH and the Mass there. Also, I really enjoyed the silence one experiences at meals and all over the monastery!
 
I like to go yearly to an Opus Dei retreat. They’re all the same format, but the content changes with the priests who give it, of course.

They last 2 1/2 or 3 days. Each day has Mass, a series of half-hour meditations by the priest, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, spiritual reading, opportunities for confession, and lots of quiet time. Everyone stays silent until the final meal.

The very best one was the first one I went on after a long absence. It was in a modest little motel. God’s message to me that time was, “I LOVE YOU!” I was just blown away.

Incidentally, the worst one was in a gorgeous retreat center in the middle of rolling farmland. I would be hard pressed to tell you what I was supposed to get out of that one.

Most of them have been just great, but the best and worst do stand out.

Betsy
 
My wife and I are Benedictine oblates and we enjoy seeking God in silence at weekend retreats at St. Leo Abbey (a Benedictine monastery) in Florida, U.S.A.

During our retreats we join the monks praying and singing the divine office several times during the day and we attend daily Mass. We read, walk, and watch the beauty of the lake and abbey grounds.

One of our favorite times is sitting in the quiet abbey church before vespers at 5:00 pm with the afternoon light through the stained-glass windows filling the church.
We adopt a theme for our retreats in the month or so prior going. This helps prepare us for moving into the monastic spirit and it helps us “stay on the retreat” even when we get back home.

For us, retreats help direct our lives into seeking God and praying without ceasing.

I find many people looking for a deeper spiritual life and I appreciate every opportunity (like this post) to suggest finding and visiting a monastery. Pope Benedict XVI calls monasteries places of spiritual power. Part of that spiritual power is described in this great quote I heard a couple of days ago on EWTN in a Poor Clare video on about monasteries:

“People sense almost instinctively that the monastery is a home for the world.” 🙂
 
I went to a Youth Rally. I went to Confession and talked with a priest about some issues with my life, fellowshipped with my friends, and heard some great talks. Later that night, we had Palm Sunday Mass. I went up in front of everyone and made a declaration to Jesus. It was awesome 🙂

-Jeanne
 
My best retreats are week long totally silent ones…ok we can talk to a director for 45 minutes once a day. Nothing else is required at the retreat except to be open to God. I just love it. I usually do it at a Jesuit retreat house
 
best structured retreat was Healed in the Spirit, at the Sacred Heart retreat center in Youngstown about 18 years ago. I came away for the first time understanding the true nature of forgiveness and how to let go of old sorrows and resentments. truly life changing, and I learned how in a practical way the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available to us in all circumstances of life when remember to invoke them and use them.

For this time in my life an unstructured silent retreat at our local Benedictine monastery or with the Jesuits in Parma, Ohio, is the highlight of my year. It has to be at least a week to “work” because it takes time to get off the road and into the silence. I do look forward to our Benedictine Oblate weekend retreat each year, and it is great help spiritually to me in growing in the Benedictine life, but the only thing that really “counts” as a retreat is a period of silence in a supportive sacred place.
 
Maranatha said:
Please let us know where you took your best retreat and why you consider it your best? What did you get out of it?

Thanks.

:gopray:
Click to expand...
It was so long ago.

I think the place was called Casa Manresa in P.R. This was back in the early '70’s.

I had just recently entered the Catholic Charismatic Movement and was all ablaze and full vim and vigor.
However, this was a spiritual retreat, a deepening in the faith and it dealt with stillness and quiet…
My room (or cell) was barely lit by one light bulb and whatever light came to the small, single window. Army style steel fram bed, a crucifix on the wall a small table and chair.

Remembering the room brings back feelings of contemplation and prayer - it invited prayer and meditation. I wanted to grab a broom and rag and clean up for everyone else. I wanted to serve.
 
mangy_dog said:
It was so long ago.

I think the place was called Casa Manresa in P.R. This was back in the early '70’s.

I had just recently entered the Catholic Charismatic Movement and was all ablaze and full vim and vigor.
However, this was a spiritual retreat, a deepening in the faith and it dealt with stillness and quiet…
My room (or cell) was barely lit by one light bulb and whatever light came to the small, single window. Army style steel fram bed, a crucifix on the wall a small table and chair.

Remembering the room brings back feelings of contemplation and prayer - it invited prayer and meditation. I wanted to grab a broom and rag and clean up for everyone else. I wanted to serve.
Click to expand...
I’m following up on my own thread 🙂

The effects of that one retreat were so imprinted on my soul that, today (on or about 30 years later) it is still the source of quiet and stillness and interior prayer.
 
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