Mental Prayer for January 16, What Is a Retreat?

Mental Prayer Meditation Helps

Presence of God

Grace I Ask: Dear God, help me to realize the eternal importance of making a good retreat.

The Idea: A retreat is not something to listen to, but something to do. The real value of my making a good retreat will not be measured by how good the retreat master's talks are, but by how much I myself grow in spiritual strength. Just as the real football game begins not in the locker-room when the coach gives his last-minute pep-talk, but only when the two teams begin to fight for victory on the field, so my real retreat work will be in the struggle in my own soul against the shifty plays of Satan, who constantly is trying to cheat me out of eternal joy in heaven. A retreat is a time of spiritual exercise, and it should result in a toughening of my spiritual muscles.

My Personal Application: Because this is com­pletely personal exercise inside my own soul, we call these days a retreat, that is, a turning away from the occupations and distractions of ordinary daily life. This exercise demands my full attention to just two things: God and myself. It is the one time of the year when I can sit down and really understand why I am alive, what I am supposed to do in order to live rightly, how I have failed to do so, and why - and most importantly, what I must do to get back on the right track and stay there.

I Speak to God: Dear God, help me to prepare my soul during the time before my retreat, so that I will make it the best way possible.

Thought for Today: God and myself!
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Adapted from Mental Prayer, Challenge to the Lay Apostle
by The Queen's Work,(© 1958)