► What is a spiritual retreat for?
A Spiritual Retreat is a step aside in our hectic daily life. It’s a parenthesis that allows you to catch your breath, or to take stock of your life. “In a way, it’s a spiritual vacationexplains Marie-Élisabeth Picard, lay consecrated at the Foyer de Charité de Roquefort-Côte d’Azur (Alpes-Maritimes). The change of pace during this break can be destabilizing, as can the inner reflections it will lead to, since a retreat pushes us to question ourselves on our journey, to ask ourselves existential questions, to settle accounts that are too long left in the back of our minds. But all of this with one goal: to help us find meaning in our lives. »
Far from being a selfish gesture, spiritual retreat is a way of withdrawing from one’s living environment to return to it fully oneself. We “plunges into his vital forces”, continues Marie-Élisabeth, to leave with positive energy. Retirement can “to offer a greater life by making us understand where the axis of our existence is located”believes in turn Father Paul Legavre, director of the Manrèse center, a Jesuit spiritual center in Île-de-France. “There are periods of life when it is beneficial to take more care of one’s relationship to oneself and to God”he adds.
► How do I know if I need it?
The need to go on a spiritual retreat can be felt at the dawn of a concrete event: emotional upheaval, professional change, mourning, or even moving… But the call for silence and meditation can also take more intimate paths. and result in a particular emotional state: exhaustion, feeling of not knowing where you are, inextricable dilemma, dizziness in a society where you struggle to find your place…
“However, one can retire without any particular cause, free of charge,like Mary, sister of Martha, who puts herself at the feet of Jesus to listen to his word, and make more room for him in her life, recalls Father Legavre. We all have a particular spiritual path that needs to be taken care of. »
The desire for spiritual retreat often takes “the form of an inner call, even very discreet”, explains Father Legavre. It is simply, he sums up, “the desire to take care of your soul, and your body too: a retreat is not disembodied! We rest, we savor the silence specific to this time of break, we walk, we breathe more, we take the time to share meals… ”
► Retirement, a place of solitude, not isolation
So it would be enough to leave the city and spend three days in the countryside to benefit from the virtues of a retreat? ” Why not, replies Father Legavre, but a retreat offers something more: the fact of being supported in this process by the liturgy, the Eucharist, the teachings given, or by a man or a woman formed to accompany the retreatant. »
In most places of retreat, monks, nuns or lay people are available to listen to those who wish to confide in their journey of life or faith. “Because when we go away, luminous dimensions and dark elements surface: we are confronted with our inner struggles, exposes Father Legavre. But let’s keep in mind that the life of Jesus is also steeped in prayers and moments of solitude similar to retreats. He also encourages us to do the same: “Come apart into a desert place and rest a little” (Mark 6:31). »
Be careful, however, not to formulate too specific expectations vis-à-vis a spiritual retreat: “This is not necessarily the place for the miracle solution, warns Marie-Élisabeth Picard, but it will necessarily be that of reflection and of a better self-knowledge in this silence where one is alone without being isolated. »