Retreat Planning Help Needed (Roman Catholic)

N/A | 21 April 2004 | Myself

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

My Catholic Center at my University (to remain nameless), has two retreats a year, one in the fall, and one in the spring. This year I have volunteered to help lead the Spring retreat with a number of other students (my goal being to ensure Orthodoxy and to develop a spiritual retreat). Anyway, I have a few ideas for what to do, but I would like to pick the brains of our Catholic Caucus for your recommendations. You are an incredible fountain of knowledge, I would be amiss not to use you. So any suggestions, comments, concerns, etc. Only one of the fellow leaders is a theological liberal as far as I can tell.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Thanks. God Bless

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Defenders of the Faith!!

I want to pick your brain ping!

God Bless

[Campion]

Maybe the friars at Marytown (Libertyville) can give you some ideas.

Opus Dei has a retreat center in the Chicago area, I believe it's in NW Indiana somewhere. You might talk to them.

Campion (NU undergrad class of '83)

[Campion]

The Opus Dei center is in Valparaiso, and has a website.

[nika]

Hello, I wonder if it would be fruitful to introduce them to the Church Fathers A study of the letters of St. Ignatius (St. Ignatius was a disciple of the Apostle John), for example, might be enlightening. Here is an excerpt from The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans:

Do ye, therefore, notice those who preach other doctrines, how they affirm that the Father of Christ cannot be known, and how they exhibit enmity and deceit in their dealings with one another. They have no regard for love; they despise the good things we expect hereafter; they regard present things as if they were durable; they ridicule him that is in affliction; they laugh at him that is in bonds. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that ye should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion [of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved. But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Invite a traditional priest to speak. How many days do you have for the retreat? Do you have a Christ the King or FSSP nearby? Perhaps the priest could speak on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

What's old is new again. Be a rebel and do something conservative shocking :-D

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

This is part of our Newman Center, so our priest here will be the presider and retreat leader. I cannot get a read on him, and I have been here for three years. He does have a difficult job, between the more Orthodox students, moderate adults, and uber-liberal older associates. Not an easy job.

[lightman]

Any spiritual retreat should be structured around the daily prayer offices so that at least one complete set (Matins, Vespers, and Compline, at a minimum) can be prayed together. The times in between should include opportunities for the sacrament of reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.

Try to draw your theme from the daily lectionary, so that your time together will be consciously part of the global Church.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Has the priest voiced any ideas?

[drstevej]

Make it a memorable retreat with your truly as the key note speaker.

[rcath60]

Hi. I have no idea where you are, but I suggest you contact the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal out of New York City. Go to franciscanfriars.com and follow the links to their grassroots renewal site, or you can email them at Youth2000@aol.com. The friars travel all over the country for retreats and are awesome!

[Salvation]

There are some good suggestions here. I would suggest looking at the springtime with the increase in light....leading to the Gospel of John.

Please check out this thread for some tidbits:
The Blessed Season of Easter - Fifty Days of Reflections Music that goes along with the theme of light or with the idea of Christ continuing discourse with us would also be appropriate.

Have some reflection times with some questions to answer. Maybe then you can come back to your small groups during the day to share your thoughts and feelings. If you keep the questions on how the word of the Lord touches a person personally then it will make no difference in the ultra conservative or overly liberal viewpoints.

Some of the guidelines for a retreat need to be
1-Listen with your heart, not just your mind
2-Confidentiality is a must -- what is said here stays here.
3-Comments are not needed, but if you must comment a simple "Thank You" will suffice.
4-Stay "in the room" -- on subject.
5-Do not give advice.
6-Trust the process
7-Keep to the time table and the task at hand. (If the task is praying, then pray; if the task is writing, then write. (In other words, a participant in a retreat, gets out of it what they put into it.)
8-Participate fully whether it is listening, writing, or sharing in a group.

Set limits for talking and wandering also.

Possible songs:
"Prayer of St. Francis"
"Holy Ground"
"Be Not Afraid"
"Here I Am, God"
"Lead Me, Lord"
Responsorial Psalm on "The Lord is my light and my salvation>"

Some secular songs--
"Something Beautiful"

One Voice

I've got other suggestions

[Salvation]

Another suggestion wouldbe to build it on the readings for that day.

You can look ahead on most of the sites that I post from and that Nyer posts from and find the commentaries for the given day.

You can FReepmail either one of us for the sources for what we post on the daily readings thread.

[Salvation]

A retreat obviously needs three or four good presentations. Maybe the priest can get you started in the morning. Follow up questions might be on what they expect and what they will give during the day. Or reactions to the message he has given.

Then a personal testimony could be given -- with questions that would bring out the possibility of everyone sharing a part of their faith story.

A third presentation during the day could be on Trust or Living in the Light; it could be given by a peer or a member of the local community or a religious community. Your archdiocese might have suggestions for you there. Follow up questions could deal with trust: trusting myself, trusting others, trusting God. (Or walking in the light -- through personal Scripture study, interaction at the university and thirdly serving in the larger community -- point being evangelization.

The fourth presentation could tie it off with summarizing the day and looking at how we go out into the world to live our faith (through our own prayer life, through service, through reaching out to others -- even if it is only with a smile.) You get the idea.

You might bring the group back after lunch with a guided mediation. I have several that are appropriate. (Actually the Holy Ground song by Michael Smith could be used -- and I have additional material for that.

FReepmail me if you want.

[Salvation]

Another idea just popped into my head.

You could pair people off with someone they didn't know very well for Prayer Partners throughout the day.

Another idea -- invite other friends -- and always start with some kind of an icebreaker.

And then prayer, prayer, prayer.

[undirish01]

NWU,

I recommend highly The Fathers of Mercy mission priests.

These guys ROCK! They do not hold back, and tell it like it is. They are located just west of Bowling Green, Ky. Using a baseball term, these guys can "bring it"!

http://www.fathersofmercy.com/contact

[Desdemona]

Daily Mass and rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, priests available for confession, lots of "quiet" time for personal reflection. A keynote speaker would be nice, but be sure to find someone REALLY orthodox.

This is supposed to be a renewal, so ditch the canned music - you know what I'm talking about, electric harps and the other trendy acousitcal crap. You might find a soloist to lead chant and song. Or, if you can find a good a cappella choir to sing some Renaissance (particularly Italian) music. That stuff is realy good for the soul.

[Mamzelle]

I am seeking to ask a question of someone RC involving being a Catholic in good standing, being able to take sacraments.

I am not Catholic--

I am aware that divorced people may not be able to take communion, but what is the status of the cohabiting, the "shacking up"--the living in sin? Are they "in good standing"?

TIA.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

I believe not, to answer your question, if the relationship is sexual and they are living together. If it were platonic (i.e. just two friends, I know rare), than I don't believe so, I'll let NYer handle this one.

[siunevada]

1415
Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.
.


2349
"People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single."136 (CDF Persona humana 11) Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence:


There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others. . . . This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church. St. Ambrose De Viduis 4, 23:PL 16,255A


2353
Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.



Catechism of the Catholic Church.