Why take a Spiritual Retreat?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes the importance for every baptized person to develop a living relationship with God. A spiritual retreat is a great way to do this, through the supportive setting of prayer or teachings. Spiritual retreats are getting more and more popular today. So why go on a retreat? Needs, desires, and motivations can be very different from one person to another. In this article by Hozana, let's take a look at the most common motivations for enrolling in retreats. At the end of this reading, we invite you to discover other great questions about Christian life.

Learning

Learning (or teaching) is a way for many Christians to live out one of the five essentials of Christian life.

Some people will therefore decide to take a retreat for reasons related to learning and teaching. For example, such as those who want to deepen their understanding of a biblical topic, or one from the Magisterium, or on Christian life (such as holiness, forgiveness, etc.).

This can also be linked to the desire to discover a new spirituality: for example, Carmelite spirituality with the Saints of Carmel, Jesuit spirituality, Dominican spirituality, etc.

Discernment

Some participants enroll in a retreat to discern: that could mean discerning their vocation such as marriage or priesthood, whether or not to engage with a certain person, to continue to work in one's professional field or reorient oneself, etc.

In short, discernment is generally about a specific question that the retreat member hopes to have more elements at the end to answer. 

To have or renew an experience of God

Some people will enroll in a retreat to experience a personal encounter with God. Often, this decision comes from inside, but in other cases, it is simply because they have been invited to participate in a retreat.

For people far from the Church, spiritual retreat can be a way to have a new experience. For others, participating in a retreat is also motivated by renewing the experience of God's love and rekindling the fire.

To rest

At a retreat, you usually don’t have to cook. Your daily obligations are reduced. And one of the motivations of some participants is simply to rest.

Review your life

A motivation for making a retreat can be to take a break, to do a review or a rereading of one's life. This motivation is different from discernment. It’s a matter of re-reading one's life, listening to God and the Holy Spirit, without necessarily discerning on a specific question. It can be, for example, to see the moments when the Lord was particularly present in our lives and to give thanks.

Rekindle the fire

Another motivation for making a retreat can be to rekindle the fire in oneself to be zealous again. To the extent that every Christian is called to be a missionary disciple, it is important to be animated by the fire of the Spirit to evangelize. When our fire is out, and we have less ardor, a spiritual retreat is a very good way to revive this fire. Teachings and prayer are ways for the retreat to rekindle this fire: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). 

Discover online retreats with Hozana

Hozana offers retreats online. For example:

·        This long retreat with Saint Padre Pio!

·         And so many more!

·         Or perhaps you’d prefer a shorter one to rediscover God’s mercy