Retreat
At the recent Founders Day there were seventeen concelebrants and four abbesses among the mass attendees. There were no scheduled retreats other than the 75th anniversary celebration and initiation of the annual creche festival. I thought,” where are the retreatants?” You see, retreatants often attend the hours of the monastery worship.
It is estimated more than 10,000 visitors come to Mepkin yearly. This year more than 11,000 registered to view the creche exhibit. Countless people pay visits to the grounds, gardens and gift shop. Many visit the columbarium. Fewer the library and sanctuary. At least five hundred participate in residential retreats at the Saint Francis Retreat Center.
I am thinking about the word “retreat”. What is retreat? What is a retreat? Is it a verb? Or a noun? The Romans gave us the term “retrehere” meaning to draw or pull back. From the French retreater we assimilated “retreat”. Here is where it gets murky … Retreats come in all sizes and shapes – from A to Z; from associates retreats to zoologic retreats. I note among sponsored retreat titles: company, countryside, detox, fishing, hunting, literary, overnight, personal growth, romantic couples, spa, strategy team building and wellness. hunting, fishing, team building, romantic couples, personal growth. Additionallyt from a religious perspective there are spiritual retreats, Ignatian retreats, church organization retreats. Tongue in cheek I think of re-treat as a second medical procedure. So, what is a retreat at Mepkin?
The Abbey webpage informs me there are many alternatives for participation at the Retreat Center: lecture attendance, zoom events, in-person guided sessions and unguided personal retreats. Some ask for Spiritual Direction as a part of their retreat. The Center is a welcoming island lovingly and efficiently orchestrated by Mrs. Joye Lane-Hill and Father Guerric Heckel, O.C.S.O. The “drawing away” is a defined time separated from usual activities and distraction so that one might reconnect with and peel back the layers of something of importance. Here “retreat” is not a verb implying fleeing, giving up or relinquishing control, but may have an element of challenging something difficult in order to move forward.
Language is powerful. What does the word retreat convey? Psalm 119: 114 in the King James Version says, “Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word”. The 2011 NABRE Catholic translation is “You are my refuge and my shield; in your word I hope.” The same verse in the NIV is rendered, “You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope.” I have seen the NIV quoted, “You are my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your word to renew me.”
Is a hiding place the same as a refuge? The same as a place of quiet retreat? Hiding Place – Refuge – Quiet Retreat.
Many come to a retreat in times of personal transition. We are told Jesus needed time by himself and encouraged his disciples to do so. Soon after being baptized, He was sent by the Spirit into the desert for forty days where he was tempted by Satan. (Mk 1:12). He sought a private place after the news of John the Baptist’s death (Mt 14:13) and before his Passion at Gethsemane (Mk 14:32). In addition to the Lord’s prayer, he taught his disciples to pray saying, “When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”. (Mt 6:6-7)
So, in that still quiet place, the Father is there.
For me, a retreat in the spiritual realm is both a noun and a verb. It is a time and place to come to a deeper reckoning with oneself and enter a process of discernment such that what has been hidden might be better understood in attempt to submit to the Divine.
– Richard H. Fitzgerald, M.D., F.A.C.P.
