Nun is "going into retreat" (?)

[victrolatim]

In anticipation of meeting with the Dominican nuns and volunteering my time to help their community I’ve been doing some reading on contemplative life, St. Dominic, etc. I just received a small note from the extern I have been emailing and she told me that she will be “going into retreat this evening and will be back in touch on June 4”. What exactly is “going into retreat”? I did note that from now until June 4 is nine days so I’m thinking she is praying a novena or something?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

They go away from their daily duties and spend some quiet time in spiritual contemplation, often with special prayers or activities set up for the retreat participants. It’s a break from routine so you can concentrate on refreshing yourself spiritually and perhaps praying for particular grace or guidance or intentions.

Lay people can “go on retreat” too - there are always a lot of different ones offered, sometimes by religious orders who have participants come for the weekend.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

A spiritual retreat is a time, usually several days, away from our regular life for spiritual reflection and growth. Priests and religious are encouraged to go on a retreat yearly.

Wikipedia: Retreat (spiritual)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retreat_(spiritual

Our Sunday Visitor: “Why go on a spiritual retreat?”
osv.com/MyFaith/Mass/Article/TabId/683/ArtMID/13727/ArticleID/10536/Why-go-on-a-Spiritual-Retreat.aspx

 

[Rosebud77]

In anticipation of meeting with the Dominican nuns and volunteering my time to help their community I’ve been doing some reading on contemplative life, St. Dominic, etc. I just received a small note from the extern I have been emailing and she told me that she will be “going into retreat this evening and will be back in touch on June 4”. What exactly is “going into retreat”? I did note that from now until June 4 is nine days so I’m thinking she is praying a novena or something?

Life in community is not always easy and sight can be lost of many things. Hence a retreat is simply withdrawing. I know one Poor Clare Order that has actually made a “hermitage” for that purpose and at least one order here in Ireland had doen the same, Glencairn Abbey; an excellent film on that site; they even drop the habit though hen on “holiday” there

 

[Roseeurekacross]

I have just been at a Jesuit Spiritual Exercises Retreat. It was a stay in the world retreat that went for a month. We met once a week and had retreat homework. There were Laity and Religious on the Retreat. One dear retired Nun.

A Retreat can be an intense reflective prayerful live in experience or a longer retreat where the normal daily chores are still performed.

 

[OraLabora]

Retreats at our local Benedictine abbey are communal, and usually preached by someone from outside the community who is not always (but often is) Benedictine.

At that time they don’t take in guests at the guest house, do not do anything other than necessary tasks (such as serving meals), and are generally unavailable to outsiders. However the laity can still attend the Divine Office and conventual Mass with them.

The retreats last for one week.

 

[otjm]

My sister and I will be making a 4 day retreat at our local Trappist abbey this August. A chance to shut up, avoid internet and phone, and contemplate.

 

[Gardenman]

“Going on a retreat” was a very common practice for the nuns at our parish school back in the day.(the 60’s) No one ever questioned the “why” of it, and it seems like it was usually during the middle of the school year.
Looking back and remembering that we always had 50 plus kids per class, and often times a particular class may have had a lot of difficult kids, it made perfect sense that these women needed a well deserved break to preserve their sanity !
Who WOULDN’T need a break under those conditions ?
Priests and nuns need time to “regroup” just like anyone else.

 

[starlady88]

The Benedictine monastery where my aunt is has something similar. All the nuns are required (I think it’s a requirement) to make a retreat each year, for about a week or so. Some of them go “off campus,” to another monastery or convent somewhere else; others may stay in one of the guesthouses and spend quiet time alone in prayer.

They also have something called a “hermit day,” which is one day a month which they spend apart from the community. They are not required to pray or eat with the community, and they are exempt from their normal daily duties that day. Sort of like a mini-retreat.

I spent two months one summer volunteering with the nuns - I lived in one of their guesthouses and worked at the front desk. There was always someone on retreat or having a hermit day!