They say that making a retreat is the most satisfying act that anyone can achieve in one's life. But more often than not, most of the people who undergo and make or join retreats do not really have the concrete reasons in hand to guide them in their personal journeying. In today's age of hustle bustle, it is highly advised that one who plans to make a retreat has to underscore significant reasons in order to arrive at the best results. The goal to achieve must be attained and this makes retreat a satisfactory one.
In this regard, I have listed at least ten powerful reasons to make a successful retreat and here they are:
1.) To solve your personal problems. - Nothing works as a greater spur to resolving problems than getting away from one's ordinary environment for a period of time to see and meditate on God's will, while looking over your own life from a distance. Private, personal desires begin to look very unimportant. God's will and God's love gradually appear to be what they really are: the most important goals in the world.
2.) To get away from wordly distractions - Because the world around you bombards you constantly about material things, you must get away from it once in a while. Never in history was the world's voice louder than it is today - in television, radio, newpapers, magazines, the Internet, social gatherings, business contacts and advertising. At a retreat, you're reminded that you can only really enjoy the god things of the world if you are living for something bigger that this world- and that is God.
3.) To renew your lifetime goals - You constantly need new ideas, more knowledge and deeper convictions about your primary goals in life, and an effective way of attaining them is through making a retreat. A retreat accomplishes the feat of increasing your spiritual goals better than any other means.
4.) To open your heart to God's love - You are granted an extraordinary store of special graces fro good Christian living through the exercises of a retreat. Extraordinary miracles of conversion have been effective through retreats, chiefly because of the great graces God bestows on those who make them well.
5.) To get advice about personal concerns - During a retreat, you are given an opportunity to discuss personally, with an expert in spiritual matters, the special problems that have come up in your life. (However, in the case of a silent and closed-personal retreat, usually done by monks and nuns and other Religious, getting a spiritual advisor may not apply.)
6.) To meet people who share your faith - You will meet and mingle with other men or women from various walks of life. Their example will encourage and inspire you, and their common prayers and sacrifices will help you. Some of your greatest encouragement will be derived from a few words with a fellow retreatant who has already met and solved problems like your own. (However, this does not apply to Cloistered monks and nuns.)
7.) To strengthen your concern and zeal - You will be prepared and fortified with your retreat to help others in temptation or trouble whom you are bound to meet in your daily life. Those who make retreats find themselves eager to speak of supernatural realities, even to worldly minded people.
8.) To examine your faults and plan progress - You owe it to your family to check up on your faults by healthy self-examination away from the family circle - during a retreat. You can find out what kind of a person you are only by getting away from your present situation once in a while, and looking carefully at the ideal you should be working toward and the reality you have actually been.
9.) To get some rest and relaxation - You will actually enjoy making a retreat. It can be a new, refreshing, relaxing and restful experience. With the tremendous spiritual good that is done for your soul, there usually comes a sense of relaxation and rest for the body. That makes a retreat worthwhile - even in the purely physical order.
10.) To talk with people who regularly make retreats - Tens of thousands of men and women testify to the incalculable good that has come to them through their retreat. If you have any lingering doubts about whether you will enjoy making a retreat, or whether you will get any good out of it, ask friends who make regular retreats. Chances are you will be given such an enthusiastic pep talk that all your doubts will be swept away either green wood or dry. (Again, this does not apply to contemplative cloistered monks and nuns.)
In this regard, I have listed at least ten powerful reasons to make a successful retreat and here they are:
1.) To solve your personal problems. - Nothing works as a greater spur to resolving problems than getting away from one's ordinary environment for a period of time to see and meditate on God's will, while looking over your own life from a distance. Private, personal desires begin to look very unimportant. God's will and God's love gradually appear to be what they really are: the most important goals in the world.
2.) To get away from wordly distractions - Because the world around you bombards you constantly about material things, you must get away from it once in a while. Never in history was the world's voice louder than it is today - in television, radio, newpapers, magazines, the Internet, social gatherings, business contacts and advertising. At a retreat, you're reminded that you can only really enjoy the god things of the world if you are living for something bigger that this world- and that is God.
3.) To renew your lifetime goals - You constantly need new ideas, more knowledge and deeper convictions about your primary goals in life, and an effective way of attaining them is through making a retreat. A retreat accomplishes the feat of increasing your spiritual goals better than any other means.
4.) To open your heart to God's love - You are granted an extraordinary store of special graces fro good Christian living through the exercises of a retreat. Extraordinary miracles of conversion have been effective through retreats, chiefly because of the great graces God bestows on those who make them well.
5.) To get advice about personal concerns - During a retreat, you are given an opportunity to discuss personally, with an expert in spiritual matters, the special problems that have come up in your life. (However, in the case of a silent and closed-personal retreat, usually done by monks and nuns and other Religious, getting a spiritual advisor may not apply.)
6.) To meet people who share your faith - You will meet and mingle with other men or women from various walks of life. Their example will encourage and inspire you, and their common prayers and sacrifices will help you. Some of your greatest encouragement will be derived from a few words with a fellow retreatant who has already met and solved problems like your own. (However, this does not apply to Cloistered monks and nuns.)
7.) To strengthen your concern and zeal - You will be prepared and fortified with your retreat to help others in temptation or trouble whom you are bound to meet in your daily life. Those who make retreats find themselves eager to speak of supernatural realities, even to worldly minded people.
8.) To examine your faults and plan progress - You owe it to your family to check up on your faults by healthy self-examination away from the family circle - during a retreat. You can find out what kind of a person you are only by getting away from your present situation once in a while, and looking carefully at the ideal you should be working toward and the reality you have actually been.
9.) To get some rest and relaxation - You will actually enjoy making a retreat. It can be a new, refreshing, relaxing and restful experience. With the tremendous spiritual good that is done for your soul, there usually comes a sense of relaxation and rest for the body. That makes a retreat worthwhile - even in the purely physical order.
10.) To talk with people who regularly make retreats - Tens of thousands of men and women testify to the incalculable good that has come to them through their retreat. If you have any lingering doubts about whether you will enjoy making a retreat, or whether you will get any good out of it, ask friends who make regular retreats. Chances are you will be given such an enthusiastic pep talk that all your doubts will be swept away either green wood or dry. (Again, this does not apply to contemplative cloistered monks and nuns.)
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