Busy Person Retreat in Rolla

From October 12-15 I was at Rolla MS&T for a Busy Person Retreat. So, what is a busy person retreat? The retreatants (people making the retreat) are college students. I was there as a spiritual leader, guide, director or mentor. There were 3 religious sisters along with the campus minister, a lay woman and 2 deacons who were also spiritual leaders, guides, directors or mentors. (I like the traditional term of spiritual director, so that is what I will use from here on out.) The college student chooses which spiritual director he or she wants to meet with. Then, for 30 minutes each day that directee (student) reads, prays and meditates over a scripture passage the director has assigned to the student. Then, for another 30 minutes the director and student meet to discuss the readings and anything else the student wants to discuss. Usually the reading will be a springboard into a conversation that the student wants to have with the director. The meetings are confidential and individualized. Since they are individualized the students do not each get the same readings. A beautiful component of a busy person retreat is that the rest of the day, the retreatant (student) carries on as normal. It's just they have to commit to that one hour (pray for 30 minutes and discuss for 30 minutes.) I had 6 amazing people as my directees. And, that is really all I can say about that. It is important to clarify: even though most directors are vocation directors, any college student can make a busy person retreat. We have no hidden agenda to recruit where God is not recruiting. We simply companion the person wherever the spirit is moving the conversation.

One night we were to have a vocations panel. As directors we were supposed to talk about the broad understanding of vocation and discernment. The broad understanding of vocation is that we are all called to holiness. God knows at our baptism where in the body of Christ he wants us to be so we can live that life of holiness most completely. We don't just make decisions outside of prayer and call that discernment. Rather, when we pray over a decision and use all our best abilities to learn as much as we can about each good choice in front of us and then add that information to our prayer, then we are doing discernment. But, discernment does not stop there. To really discern, we must act upon that decision. "Yes, God I am discerning... give me another sign or show me what I am to do." God says, "do something and I will show you whether that is the direction to go or not. If you feel at peace and don't keep hearing a voice to go a different direction, stay where you are. If you still feel called or moved to go in a different direction, go that direction and see if that doesn't bring you peace and quiet the voice." (OK, I don't know if when I talk about what God says if there really should be quotes, but I have to put this into some sort of words that make sense, so understand the purpose of the quotes. Thanks!)

Anyhow, it is important to realize that trying to find the vocation that leads us to holiness the most completely is neither a riddle to be solved or a puzzle to be put together. In other words, it is not a project to be solved. Rather, it is a relationship to be lived. God is communicating to you which vocation it is and is pointing you toward it. As you grow in your relationship with him it will become clearer and clearer which direction he wants you to go. Question: Will you go that direction? As your relationship grows the answer will probably be yes unless you put the breaks on the relationship. Uh, God, I love you and all and think your pretty cool, but if you're asking me to go down this road, well, I'm just not sure I want that, so let's just stay here in our relationship." And God is all about free will, so he will allow that to happen. But, since he wants what is best for you, don't be surprised if he continually calls even as you stay on the fence or sideline.

At this panel, I talked about the importance of prayer: Mass more than every Sunday, adoration, rosary, praying with scripture, private prayer each day and reconciliation.

I want to share a question and answer that I think is worth pointing out here. A female asked how a female would know which order to look into and join if she believed she were called to religious life. Excellent question! Here is the basic structure of a conversation I have with women that approach me about religious life: What are you looking for? What is your sense and understanding of Community; what kind of charism do you want of the order which would be attractive to you; is the habit important to you or do you feel called to blend with the rest of society? Once they can answer those questions, it becomes easier to recommend a few orders for the woman to go visit. I recommend that before she phones or e-mails and certainly before she visits she asks the Holy Spirit to help her find her new home. When she arrives if this is her new home let it be known, then trust the prayer and do the necessary homework to pray and discern.

The rest of the week I spent working on On-Going Formation for priests. After the priest is ordained, to continue learning and continuing to grow in his priesthood. It is a project a few of us in the diocese are working on. Friday, I visited the school students at the parish. It was a wonderful week!