Posted on 11/13/2013 12:37:02 PM PST by Mamzelle
Someone I care about has been behaving oddly since returning from a "walk to emmaus" retreat. Won't communicate. I thought this was just a nice Methodist spiritual time and I'd appreciate advice.
United Methodist?
“Oddly” in what way? I am involved in the Presbyterian version of the original Catholic “Cursillo”... now us Presbys to be different call it “Pilgrimmage”. Same basic format.
What do you want to know?
What do you mean by ‘oddly’? I know many who have participated in the evangelical version, “Tres Dias” and they’re drawn closer to the Lord.
I can deal that my friend can’t discuss the experience. But the friend won’t talk at all about anything except inanities.
Think so.
Why do secretive?
The Walk to Emmaus is often a life-changing event. It is an incredible three days where you spend hours listening to lectures on the different areas of Christian life and faith, told by lay people and ordained clergy. Each lecture is a very intimate talk that is prepared and given for each different weekend. The weekend is described by many as a glimpse of what your first day heaven must be like. In addition to the lectures, you have plenty of opportunities for sharing and soul-searching and self-discovery.
What kind of strange things is your friend doing? No one comes back unchanged and some are affected more than others. I went on my weekend 4 years ago and it is still a powerful memory. Since then, I have served on team for two weekends.
Why SO secretive? I had even been interested in trying it. I’m not an expert in brainwashing, but I think it looks like this/-
>>Why do secretive?
Some details are kept confidential because your friend may want you to attend a weekend. It works better if you don’t know what’s going ot happen.
Some people take the confidentiallity a little too far and make it seem like some secret initiation. It isn’t. Its just three days of worship and listening. Let him come down from his mountaintop experience in a couple weeks and he’ll be able to tell you more.
>>Why SO secretive? I had even been interested in trying it. I’m not an expert in brainwashing, but I think it looks like this/-
It’s not brainwashing. Its just experiencing the love of Christ in a way that our western culture rarely lets us do. If you’ve ever been to a revival, its like that, but more intimate and personally oriented to just you.
What Bryan said...
The weekend is structured around a series of short talks, followed by discussion, then lots of singing, eating, rinse repeat.
The talks, and the weekend, are interspersed with moments when God shows his love for you by surrounding you with the love of His people who love and care for you.
The “secretiveness” is not really secret, any more that what your spouse has wrapped up for you under the Christmas tree. It’s just that the surprise part is some of the best and most touching parts of the weekend.
I always say... “If God were going to throw you a surprise party, would you want to know about it and see the guest list beforehand?”
It may be that he found out some things about the Methodist Church that he could not agree with. I did and it resulted in my leaving the Methodists.
I will say this about the weekend... It is an amazing, and individually transforming work of God, mainly because I have never seen any single event have so much prayer showered upon it, even before a single participant signs up for the weekend. The weekend unfolds as a chaotic random series of events, but is actually quite the opposite. Every detail of the weekend is coordinated, scheduled, timed, and prayed for by many, many people, and dedicated to God’s will. God will call those He needs to attend, and make sure they get there, at the exact right time they need to be there. I suggest you simply pray about your thinking of attending, and also about the doubt and uneasiness you felt with your friend, and see what God says about it.
I made my Episcopal Cursillo 40 years ago. Life-changing experience. Good theology, good psychology, good people. Served on several Cursillos since.
When you have hundreds of people praying for you by name 24/7 it cannot help but change you. Jesus is present at Cursillo/Emmaus and the weekend helps you see Him.
Thanks for your excellent posts. I haven’t been on this team, but have been on other ministry teams, Marriage Encounter, before my husband died, and then Beginning Experience — a grief recovery weekend about a year after his death.
What you are saying makes sense to me.
I know several who have went through it, including close family.
I know nothing bad about the experience. All reports were very positive.
I went on a retreat with a similar program (ACTS) in Texas years ago, and I’m currently on the team arranging a truncated version (Friday night and Saturday, go home at night) at my parish.
As others have said, the retreat experience can be very intense. If your friend’s retreat was recent, he may not be ready to share his experience with anyone. In addition, some parts are intended to be a surprise to the retreatants. Maybe he’s said something like, “People gave speeches, and we talked about them ... and we ate meals.” It’s true. When more time has passed, he might want to share more.
That is the best way to describe the reason for not telling the details. I have always told people, that were thinking of going but were reluctant because of the secrecy issue, that I would answer any question and even give them a schedule of events, but it would lessen the impact. No one has ever taken me up on the offer.
I went 12 years ago, wondering about why we were not told the details, but after it was over, it was clear that the secrecy made each event more special.
To Mamzelle,
I live in a military town and over half the people at "my walk" were career military. We just aren't the "huggy" type of people. But everyone came away extremely happy that we went. As evidence of how rewarding a "walk" is, every volunteer pays to participate, even the cooks.
Agreed as to all: it’s a series of 15 talks on different aspects of grace, it’s close to gluttony (in a good way) re the amount of food that’s provided, it’s nothing but a shower of love, both agape and filios, and it does change lives. I will say that it does result in some “Emmaus junkies”, who try to recreate the experience at every Emmaus gathering after they complete the walk, but there will always be those people in any group.
I went on Walk 397 in Central Texas, and have served on 3 music teams and one inside team since then. It does good things.
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