A Vacation with God
If you had the opportunity to spend a month alone with Our Lord, pretty much just the two of you, would you do it?
In other words, if you could go away to a place of quiet retreat – with no distractions, no phones or TV, no newspapers or i-pods, and someone to prepare your meals, do your dishes and free you from any other responsibilities – and all you had to attend to is Our Lord – would you do it? You would have a director, of course (someone you would talk with each day who would give you things to pray and think about). Gradually your director would lead you through one of the most helpful set of spiritual exercises ever developed – in fact, that is what the experience is called, The Spiritual Exercises, developed by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, in the early-to-mid 1500s. Would you do it?
I know the title of this column isn’t quite on the mark – talking about a “vacation.” Spending a month going through the Spiritual Exercises isn’t exactly a vacation, as we think of vacations. Rather, it can be hard work. Sometimes it is hard spending four or five individual hours in prayer every 24 hours. Sometimes it is difficult focusing on Jesus’ life for so many days (probably 70 percent of the retreat is devoted to walking along with Jesus through his life). Sometimes it is difficult dealing with your thoughts, feelings and responses to certain prayer topics.
At the same time, the blessings that come are invaluable. God will not be outdone in generosity, and anyone willing to spend that much time alone with Our Lord is going to be so enriched. Inevitably, people look back on the experience and say, it was one of the most profound experiences of my life. I will never be the same; I will never look at the world and life in the same way as I did before.
Probably there are two groups of people who, over time, have most sought to go through the Exercises. First, there are those who want to know in what direction to proceed with their lives. They come saying, “I have a certain amount of time before me to live. In what direction do you desire me to go? You have made me who I am, with all my strengths and limitations; you know me through and through. How should I move forward in life; what would you have me do?”
The second group of people is made up of those whose major life direction is clear; they are pursuing their calling, but want to tone it up. They want to live their vocation more richly, more intently. They come asking God to help renew them so that they better mirror Jesus to the world.
This column began by asking whether you would want to spend such time alone with God (and a director) for a month. I suspect there are few whose immediate response is, Yes! It’s not something that one jumps into quickly. However, there might be some who respond, “Well, not right now, but I could see myself doing it in time.” Timing for something like this is, after all, very important.
There is one other detail to share about the Spiritual Exercises A person can go through the Exercises in a way that Jesuits refer to as the 19th Annotation. In this way of proceeding the retreatant doesn’t have to stop work or leave his or her family for a month. Instead the person continues his or her life activities but devotes an hour to prayer every day and sees his or her director once a week to report on prayer and get direction for the coming week. Approaching the Exercises in this way, it takes about nine or 10 months to gradually move through all the stages involved. This is an approach that is more feasible for people with jobs and families.
In addition, a person can arrange to make a retreat of five to eight days in which he or she can dwell on some of the key themes or segments of the Exercises. Again this is an arrangement an individual would have to set up with a specific retreat director.
In conclusion, let me quote St. Ignatius’ Prayer for Generosity:
Dearest Lord,
Teach me to be generous.
Teach me to give, and not to count the cost
To fight, and not to heed the wounds
To toil, and not to seek for rest
To labor, and not to ask for reward, save knowing that I am doing Your holy will.
Amen