Dear Friend,
As you can imagine, it has been a very hard decision to postpone our next retreat to November. We miss you so much and can't wait to continue our journey together.
It's been on my heart to write and offer some spiritual guidance and perspective on how we can navigate this time as individuals who are also part of a community. So here are a few thoughts:
- Regarding our Zoom call on June 16. If you are able, we would encourage you to consider taking the entire day as a personal retreat day, given that you will be missing out on your quarterly rhythm of retreat with us. Depending on your time zone, you could use the time before the call to get quiet in God's presence. You could use the Group Spiritual Direction questions we will be sending ahead of time for personal reflection and journaling before being together with your small group. Then use the time afterward to pray and reflect on what you received as you were companioned by your group. You could commune with God in an extended time of silence that would in some way approximate the extended time in solitude and silence we are gifted with on retreat. If you need help thinking through how to make this happen for yourself, please let us know.
- Make arrangements. You may need to make special arrangements with your family so you can engage in this day, or you might consider making arrangements with a local church or retreat center that would allow for you to use their space. Please think positively and creatively about this and see how God leads!
- Be intentional in this in-between time. In addition, we encourage you to consider how to be intentional with the added time we have in between retreats. We know that many of you have not been able to engage all the assigned readings and would love to. We also know many of you started out with a desire to write reflection papers but got behind. This break in our community rhythm would be a wonderful opportunity to claim your desire to go deeper in our retreat topics.
So the bottom line for me, and perhaps for all of us, is this: let’s consider whether God, in the midst of this crisis with all its tragic elements, might also be opening up unprecedented opportunity—for solitude and silence, rest and reflection. engagement and retreat—even though we can't be together in the way to which we have become accustomed. My hope is that we can keep listening for God's truest invitations to us and be faithful to say yes!
