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The great summer dispersions of school and parish communities approach and our minds naturally turn to vacations, summer study programs and time with family and friends. In the face of these summer activities, may I suggest some time away with the Lord? Retreats are not only for priests and religious! Jesus invites all of his disciples to go away with him to a quiet place. Retreat houses across our country offer wonderful and inexpensive opportunities for prayer and reflection.
During the summer months, I recommend directed summer retreats to savor quiet aloneness with God. What a wonderful time of the year to celebrate His life in us. A simple journal during retreat helps to recognize God's action in our hearts. Retreats send us back to our daily routines missioned in the fire of the Holy Spirit and enlivened in the startling belief that Jesus, God's only Son, is risen from the dead. And in all that we say and do we are his witnesses.
What is usually meant by a directed retreat? Basically it is a type of retreat which focuses on the personal prayer of the individual. The focus is on the unique experience of God in the prayer of individuals at a given moment of time in their faith experience of God. The length of time given to this experience may vary. The usual length of time is in the vicinity of eight days, but it may go as long as thirty days on special occasions or at special points in one's life.
Central to the direct did retreat is the role of the director. The retreatants see the director once a day to talk over what is happening as they seek to open themselves to God in prayer and become sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit deep in their own hearts, and to receive material and suggestions for the following day's prayer. Normally, the director will allow a period of forty?five minutes for the retreatant, but this can be shortened or lengthened according to the needs of the individual.
 Although the entire day can in a very true sense be considered a time of prayer, the day itself is best divided into certain periods. First of all, there are distinct times of prayer during which one is directly open to God while praying over the director's suggestions. Although schedules can be arranged to fit individual needs, four or five periods of prayer, each an hour in length, are usually suggested. The actual scheduling of these periods can best be left up to the individual retreatant. Secondly, there are times for reflection during which the retreatants seek to become more aware of where God has touched them and led them by attempting to single out and become more conscious of the key movements, feelings, calls and attractions that have taken place in their prayer. The best time for these periods of reflection is immediately after the individual hours of prayer. And thirdly, there should be periods of relaxation and rest, for very little is accomplished in an atmosphere of strain and weariness.
Hopefully each person can find the right daily rhythm of prayer, reflection and relaxation in an atmosphere of peace and calm. For this reason, a quiet, peaceful and prayerful atmosphere is essential for this type of retreat. The important thing is to be alone with God in a spirit of silence and simplicity; for it is in this climate that one can best experience the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit. Since the focus in a directed retreat is on the prayer experience of the individual, the directed retreat seems best suited for one who wishes to pray and to invest a lot of time in prayer. This does not mean, of course, that the retreatant has been spending a lot of time in prayer in the past or that any particular level of prayer has already been reached. Some might even feel that they have been away from any serious prayer for some time and need to start all over again.
 In addition to having the desire to pray, the person who makes a directed retreat must have a capacity and a willingness to be open with the director in expressing and sharing what is going on in prayer, particularly during the scheduled periods of prayer. This, of course, can be difficult, particularly if this constitutes a new experience for person. One's prayer is very personal. Yet in spite of these hesitations, retreatants should realize that there are no preconceived goals or expectations, which the director has regarding their prayer. When persons seek to find God in prayer and to dispose themselves as well as possible for his communication of himself, there are no preconceived norms of success or failure. It might result in ease in prayer or difficulty in prayer; it might result in consolation and joy; it might result in dryness or desolation. Retreatants often are pleasantly surprised at their own capacity to pray and the amount of time they can devote to prayer. In prayer we do seek to become more aware of our inner selves and to become more sensitive to what God is communicating of himself and his love. In a directed retreat experience, where so much time is given to prayer, this dynamic is intensified. The prayer experience of the individual, then, involves both the aspect of listening and the aspect of responding.
In brief, it involves the processes of seeking to clarify and to discern God's will, and then to seek to respond generously. It often happens that in trying to express to another our prayer experience of God, that experience becomes clearer in our own mind. And through knowledge of what is going on during the prayer of the retreatant, the director is better able both to suggest suitable material for prayer and to aid the retreatants in becoming sensitive to the movements of the Spirit within themselves in the whole process of discernment.
Go off to a quiet place with the Lord.
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