IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES TRAINING (ISET)
2023-BLOCK FOUR – SESSION 33
THE ENCLOSED RETREAT – PART 2
Annemarie: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Good to be with you again. Just letting a few more people in. [00:01:00] I’m going to hand over to Brenda, who’s going to help us to enter into a time of prayer.
Brenda: Thanks, Annemarie. Good afternoon, evening, morning, everybody. As we come this evening or today, to look at the 30th day enclosed retreat, I thought we’d start with just some thinking about silence. So, let’s do that. If you’re comfortable turning off your video, please do that. If you wouldn’t mind just checking that you are muted.[00:02:00] For a moment, let’s do nothing. For a moment, let’s just stop rushing, stop managing, stop organizing, and just be.
It may help you to be aware of your body. So, take the time to feel what your feet feel like touching the floor.[00:03:00] Notice the feel of your clothing on your skin.
It may help to pay attention to your breathing, not to try and regulate it, but just to notice. In the stillness to notice God loving you.,[00:04:00] God’s generosity surrounding you, God present to you, Christ in you.
We’re conscious of what it is we ask of God today. What is the grace you seek in this moment? And [00:05:00] we listen for whatever it is that chooses us.
If I choose to hide you away, it is for a reason.
I have brought you to this place.
Drink in the silence. Seek solitude.
Listen to the silence.
It will teach you. It will build strength
Let others share it with you. [00:06:00]
It is little to be found elsewhere.
Silence will speak more to you in a day than the world of voices can teach you in a lifetime.
Find silence. Find solitude – and having discovered her riches, bind her to your heart.
Frances J. Roberts
We listen again.
If I choose to hide you away, it is for a reason.
I have brought you to this place.
Drink in the [00:07:00] silence. Seek solitude.
Listen to the silence.
It will teach you. It will build strength
Let others share it with you. [00:06:00]
It is little to be found elsewhere.
Silence will speak more to you in a day than the world of voices can teach you in a lifetime.
Find silence. Find solitude – and having discovered her riches, bind her to your heart.
[00:08:00] [00:09:00] [00:10:00] [00:11:00] [00:12:00]
If I choose to hide you away, [00:13:00] it is for a reason.
I have brought you to this place.
Drink in the [00:07:00] silence. Seek solitude.
Listen to the silence.
It will teach you. It will build strength
Let others share it with you. [00:06:00]
It is little to be found elsewhere.
Silence will speak more to you in a day than the world of voices can teach you in a lifetime.
Find silence. [00:14:00] Find solitude – and having discovered her riches, bind her to your heart.
We take our time to drink in the silence and then to draw our attention back into the room together.
Russell: Greetings to everybody, and welcome once again. Today, as you would have seen, we’re going to take a look at really the practicalities of the 30-day format of the spiritual exercises. Last week we spoke a little bit about that—the dynamics and so forth—and we really want to look today at the practicalities of putting together the [00:15:00] exercises in the 30-day format.
So, by way of introduction, I want to say to host the exercises well in the 30-day format means a lot of preparation. A lot of different things have to be done, and people don’t generally give up time to do this quickly. So already, if one is thinking about hosting it in this format, there needs to be maybe a year or maybe sometimes even 18 months or nine months preparation ahead of time. This is so that people can ensure that they’re able to get the time off, that they would have the necessary financial means to cover it, and also just for those who are putting the retreat together. You will see as we progress this evening, there’s a lot of bits and pieces, nuts and bolts that have to that have to be considered. Therefore, you need time to do this.
[00:16:00] So, we start with the remote preparation, and we’ve got to choose a place. You’ve got to find a place and a time where this 30-day retreat will take place. There’s a number of things that we should consider when we are doing this.
First of all, it has to be a suitable retreat center. There needs to be space for people to walk and to move around because remember, they’re going to be in this place for 30 days. If it’s a very confined space, it can become a little bit of a pressure cooker for people. You want somewhere where there’s nice open space, where people can move around; they can take walks, they can do exercise.
Also, the location should be accessible. If you choose a place that’s way up in the mountains and it’s beautiful and has lots of space, but you basically need a special vehicle to get there, that’s not accessible. One has to think about a place as well that is [00:17:00] accessible. There might be added advantages which depends upon where you are in the world. In some places they have swimming pools at some centers. Others may even have a gym; I know a retreat center that also has a gym. Just to consider things like that. So, I’m not saying they have to have that, but I’m saying those could be added advantages for the 30-day retreat.
It’s best to be able to use the whole retreat center, the whole environment, if possible. There can be noise if it is a place where there are concurrent things happening For example, there is one center here in South Africa. that can take probably about 90 people. One of the big disadvantages of that place, even for a shorter retreat is that often they have a group on retreat, but there might be a conference of the CEOs of some company are there for a few nights on a conference; and at night, they’re having drinks and a social and it’s noisy and you’ve got people doing a retreat. So, you [00:18:00] want to be able to use the whole retreat center and the whole environment if possible.
The staff of the center need to be briefed about the needs for the 30-day retreat, and this includes that the retreat is done in silence. You don’t want the staff of the retreat center every morning having long conversations while people are having breakfast or something like that. You want to make sure that they know what this is about so that they also feel like they have an insight, and they are on the team. Y
You also have repose days in the 30-day retreat in the exercises, and you want also to tell them about that because you may want, for example, to go out for a picnic on a repose day or something like that. You want to make sure that the staff know about that.
There needs to be varied and sufficient meals as people will be eating in this place for 34 days. It seems like a sort of [00:19:00] strange thing to say, but if every morning, breakfast is exactly the same for 34 days this may not be the best for some people. So, it is good as well just to talk that through.
Some centers will have a cycle. So, every 14 days they go through a cycle or something like that. So just to point out as well that people will be there and sometimes, on a retreat or whatever, things like food become important for the retreatants.
I was just doing a retreat over the weekend. I always find it fascinating at the mealtimes when it’s quiet and the music’s playing, just to sit and observe people as well. It’s interesting how things happen in the dining room when people are in silence, but you want to make sure that there’s a variation.
Of course, it should be affordable. There should be some sort of a way of making it as accessible and as affordable as possible. And some centers, at least here in South Africa, if you’re going to [00:20:00] do the 30- day format there are some centers that will give a slightly better price because you are using it for a longer time. Just think about the affordability of the center.
It needs to have a suitable chapel or space for prayer because we have liturgies during the 30-day retreat, and there needs to be a good place for that. Some centers are very nice. They might have a chapel where one can do liturgical things, but they might also have some meditation rooms and places like that. Also, just make sure there’s a suitable space for the whole group to gather.
For communal prayer ideally you need 34 days for the 30-day retreat. Sounds like a bit of a contradiction there. But you need 34 days for the 30-day retreat because normally we have two preparation days, or two pre-day should I say, and two post days just to help people to reflect on the experience at the end of the 30 days.[00:21:00] Ideally. you want to have 34 days. So, when you book the center, you’re not booking 30 days, but you’re booking 34 days.
The dates should not clash with Easter or Christmas. This creates difficulties with the spiritual exercises. We’ve spoken about that before. You’re well aware of that. So just to be aware, you don’t exactly want to be praying the third week and it’s the week of Christmas. That’s not going to be really helpful at all. Just make sure that dates don’t clash with Easter or Christmas.
I think the time of year is also important, and this you need to judge for yourself. It depends upon where you are in the world. Think about the weather. If it’s terribly hot, like in the summer like in South Africa, in some parts, it’s very hot. It’s not easy to pray for people when it’s extremely hot, but it may be the same in reverse. If it’s very cold, it’s also not too comfortable for people to pray. Those extremes of weather, one just has to bear those in mind when you are [00:22:00] deciding where you’re going to have the 30-day retreat.
The costing of the retreat—why do we put that in? Because it’s actually quite important that you take into account not just the accommodation costs for the individual, but you also want to cover the accommodation costs for the directors—the travel for the directors and the repose day. If you want to do something on the repose day, you need to make sure that you cover that cost. So, if you’re going to do an outing, for example, you want to make sure that you cover that cost.
You may need to buy some texts of the exercises and some art supplies. There may be some advertising costs involved. So, just remember when you are costing the retreat, it’s not just about the amount that the center is charging, but you have other costs that will also have to be included in the price that you are going to charge the people that are coming on this retreat to [00:23:00] cover all your costs.
A team is important. You want to have at least one person who’s experienced in the 30-day format and who can lead the team and also the supervision of the team. So, you need to have at least a person who’s experienced. You also need to have someone who can lead the daily liturgy on the 30-day format. We gather once a day for a sort of liturgy together. In the Catholic tradition, this would normally need to be a priest. So, we have to keep that in mind from the Catholic side of things that we have to make sure that there’s a priest on the team. But whatever tradition you come from, you may need to make sure that there’s someone who can lead those liturgies every day and lead them well.
The number of directors depends partly on balancing experience and also cost, and of course numbers of [00:24:00] people. Obviously, it always works better if you’ve got more people, and you are able to maybe balance costs a little bit better. So, it might be an idea for a new director to experience the 30-day format with a director that is already experienced, but it might only be good for the new director to see two people a day because you want to help the new person get into it, but costs may also prohibit it. You might need to give the new director, three people per day, but that could also be a little bit burdensome.
So, one needs to work out exactly how you’re going to do this with the number of people that you are going to have on the retreat and so forth. You might need, for example, two experienced directors who can each see four people and two inexperienced directors who can each see three people. That means [00:25:00] that you will have 14 slots. So, you’ll have place for 14 retreatants. You just need to think about when you’re putting together a team, people’s experience, and also their daily ability to see people.
You might be saying, okay, two or three people—that’s not a lot of people but just remember this is 30 days and you’re seeing these people every day for 30 days. If you see each person for an hour—and it’s not always like that—sometimes when you get into the retreat and things get going, maybe you’re only seeing someone for half an hour, but if you’re seeing people in the beginning for an hour, that’s three hours a day that you’re sitting listening.
There’s an accumulative tiredness that can develop. So, you may think three is not a lot, but one has to think of the big picture—the broad strokes here when you’re putting this together.
You will have to have a contingency plan in case one of the directors gets sick halfway [00:26:00] through the retreat. We already had a little bit of insight into that last week. Most often if that happens, the director who’s sick, their people will be reallocated to others among the team, or you may need to get a new director in. So, if someone does get sick halfway through, someone actually may land up doing four people a day if you’re going to reallocate them. One has to be aware of that as well. You never know, someone could get flu or whatever; anything can happen. You just need to keep that in your mind and have a contingency plan in case something happens to one of the directors.
The team needs to be able to work well together—closely together. Remember you’re sharing the same space for 30 days: you’re working together for 30 days. Choose a team as well that will manage to work closely together. To emphasize again, remember that you are in this for 34 [00:27:00] days. This is for the long haul and it’s quite an intense situation to be in. It’s very helpful if the team works well together. It just oils the wheels of the whole experience better.
We normally have an application process. You’ll see that on your sheet. We ask for a detailed account of the person’s faith history. We read it very carefully, looking for what their image of God is, the breadth and depth of their life experience: have they come through some kind of experience of struggle or some kind of experience of suffering. We’re looking for that in the person that applies.
We also normally ask for two referees, including their spiritual accompanier or spiritual director. and maybe a minister or a pastor in the Catholic context, a religious superior if they have [00:28:00] one. So, you want two referees—their accompanier, but also somebody else who knows the person well.
On the form of application, we normally ask if people are in therapy or on medication. If that is the case, one may need to get the person’s permission to speak to the psychologist or the psychiatrist about their suitability. So, you’re not asking the psychologist or the psychiatrist to give you a diagnosis of the person, because we know that there’s a privileged space between the patient and the health professional. We want just to find out if this person will be able to spend this long time in silence, because there’s an intensity to these 30 days. There’s also an interruption in the person’s sleep patterns due to the midnight meditations that they do and sometimes, it can be emotionally charged at parts in the 30 days. You just want to make sure what could affect the person [00:29:00] negatively. Just pass this by the health professional with the person’s permission, just to find out, do they think that at this time, at this point in their lives, this person will be able to manage these 30 days and what we do on these 30 days.
You may want to ask the referees if they have any reservations about the person’s ability to make the retreat at this time. Also, whether they think the person would benefit from making the retreat at this time, and why they think the person would. You may have to read between the lines, as sometimes referees, are often reluctant to say outright what they think about whether the person is not suitable or is unsuitable. That might be when you ask for the referral, you just say what you would like in the referral letter, just to give an outline, and one of the questions could be, do you think that the [00:30:00] person has the ability to do this? And why do you think the person will benefit from making the retreat at this time?
If you don’t already know the person, it might be important to interview them. If that’s possible, you could use something like Zoom, like we do every week, just to get a sense of who the person is. Sometimes as well, it’s helpful because, people also can have an idea in their minds of what the 30-day retreat is.
So let me give you an example. There was somebody who had it in his mind that he should do a 30-day retreat. When I spoke to him, I discovered that he was in a huge crisis in his life. He thought that the 30-day retreat was gonna help him solve this crisis. The 30-day retreat is not to solve a crisis, so it’s good to get a sense of the person, and also to maybe just ask them why they want to do it, etc. From the faith history or from what the referees say, you may also want to [00:31:00] formulate a question or so to ask the person when you speak to them.
It’s tough to tell someone that they have not been accepted for the 30-day retreat. Often it can help to say that you think the timing is not right, and this is a once in a lifetime experience. There’s a lot of cost that goes into this; a lot of time that goes into this, so maybe there’s a time in your life where it might be better to do this than at this point.
For example, the person who came to me was in this crisis and said he wanted to do a 30-day retreat. I just explained and said, I really don’t think this is a good time for you to do it. The timing is not right. You want to come into this in a fairly calm way. You’re going to get one shot at this. He was disappointed and we made an alternative to do a shorter retreat. It’s important to explain this as well to people.
Some of [00:32:00] the immediate preparation is the first thing you want to do is you want to communicate with the retreatants. Once the selection process has happened, they need to be notified in writing as to whether they have been selected for the retreat or not.
Then they should be informed about the payment process in the acceptance letter, when the deposit is due and when the full amount is due, and someone also needs to keep track of all that. Just keep in mind, you may also need an admin person who can deal with all the administrative stuff—maybe deal with setting things up at the retreat center, explaining what you need
for these 30 days, dealing with a payment process, sending out the applications. We all need Pam’s in our lives; people like Pam who can do this administration. You may need as well, in preparation for this to have someone to help.
About a month before the retreat, you need to send a detailed letter to each of the retreatants.[00:33:00] I think you need to make it very explicit what the silence means, what they need to tell their family and friends that they’ll be out of communication for 34 days. You can give them the number of the center or maybe one of the directors who is willing to, if need be, can be contacted by a family member.
Sometimes somebody goes away for a 30-day retreat and a parent or a sibling or a spouse gets really unwell, and they feel, they need to let them know so they could contact the director or one of the directors who could then pass the message on. So, you need to be very explicit about the silence and what they need to tell family and friends.
You also need to make sure you tell them what kind of things will be helpful for them to bring along—a copy of the scriptures, a journal, relaxed clothes. If they want some kind of handiwork, maybe helpful to do between the prayer times, depending on where you are in the world. Like in our part of the world, we always tell people to bring mosquito repellent [00:34:00] and also sunscreen along if it’s being done here. Maybe in some centers, you need to bring your own bedding. There is a center here in South Africa where they supply the bedding, but for example, you have to bring your own towels. They may want to bring cushion to go and sit outside somewhere in nature or a sort of camping chair or whatever the case is—whatever you think is going to be helpful to be explicit, to give people in a letter what you think they need to bring along.
Be very clear about when they need to arrive, what the start day is and when they need to leave—the departure day as people will often ask to leave before the debrief days has been our experience and that’s not a good idea.
What you’re buying into here is a package deal. You’re buying into the 34 days. So, you need to come when we’re going to start, and you need to end when we all end. That’s for the good [00:35:00] of the person, but also for the good of the group or the good of the others as well. It creates instability as well if some people leave before the debrief. I think people have to realize that this is an important part of the process as well. The debrief is not an added extra, but it’s also part of the whole experience and the whole process.
Retreatants, as well need to be asked to confirm dietary requirements. That needs to be in the letter. That’s important. People have dietary requirements. You’d have to tell the center about this ahead of time so that they are prepared. There’s nothing worse than you show up and maybe people have got a specific diet and then when they get to the center on the first day, it’s not prepared for them. Sometimes it can make people anxious. If somebody doesn’t eat fish, for example, and on the first night, everyone’s given fish, it can create a not such a good start for that person. So, it’s quite important that you make sure that [00:36:00] that is clear as well.
Ask, as I’ve said, for a name and contact number of someone in case there’s an emergency with a person so you can give them the number of a director that maybe anybody could contact if they need to get an important message—not just anything to let them know what is happening in the news headlines halfway through the retreat—but an important message if someone needs to contact them because there’s an illness in the family or whatever. You could give the number of a director, but also you want to ask the person, and it’s good to have them fill in a form so you have this: ask them for the name and contact number of someone that you can contact in case there is an emergency with a person.
So, for example, if they get sick or need to be hospitalized, and you are at the center, you need to be able to contact their family as well. So, it’s always a good idea to make sure you’ve got that information with you. [00:37:00] The best way is beforehand to get people to fill in a form so that by the time you get to the center, you’ve already got all that kind of information.
There’s a resources checklist. You may want to have name tags for the first day or two only, just so that people get to know who is there. Okay. You may want to have—we call it Prestwick in South Africa. I know that you’ve got another name in the U. S. for it. I think it’s called Blutac. If you want to put notices up on a board or stick notices somewhere during the retreat, you want to make people aware of something.
So, for example, the Giza is not working because the element is burnt and they’re going to replace it. You don’t want to announce that type. You can just put a notice up. So, you want to have something like a Blutac or Prestwick with you. You may want to have art supplies—A4 paper, A3 size paper. Koki pens, pastels, paints, clay, black plastic bags for working with the clay, paint or paint brushes, whatever supplies you want, you also need to check that you have.
[00:38:00] For the liturgies, sometimes retreat centers have some of these supplies. Like in a Roman Catholic setting, we normally have a mass kit, but in any other denomination make sure that you’ve got whatever’s required for liturgy. Make sure you’ve got hymn sheets or hymn books so that you’ve got it available for people to sing.
If you’re going to have a Eucharist, make sure you’ve got the hosts and the wine or the grape juice or whatever it is that you’re going to use.
For retreats hosted in the Catholic context , we want to have a tabernacle and a small monstrance. You may want to have special candles to indicate the presence of the Lord when you gather for liturgy or in the Catholic context for before the Blessed Sacrament.
You may want to have a resource file, including images, poems, whatever it is that you think you could use, and we’ve been saying, build up your resources. You want to take those resource files with you, so you’ve got all that. If it’s possible, [00:39:00] it’s always good as well to have a printer or a laptop with you in case you need to print things as you go along.
You will need copies of the spiritual exercises for the directors and possibly also for the retreatants. Agree on what edition you’re going to use. Remember there’s a cost factor involved there. You may need to have some extra Bibles in case they are needed.
You want to set up the place or the room for where you’re going to have the direction. So, you want to maybe have a candle and a cloth. You want to have tissues. You may want to have a first aid kit with basic medication, for things like pain or nausea, or a burn shield. Sometimes people might eat something and get a little bit of an upset tummy. You want to have medication for that. So, just a very basic first aid kit. Some retreat centers do have those so you could just check that out with the retreat center as well.
You want to have a selection of music for the meals, and this is actually much harder than one would think, because the music needs to [00:40:00] reflect the mood of the moment in the retreat and not be a distraction. So, it’s therefore better for a director to select the music rather than one of the staff at the retreat center says, okay, for the meals, I’ll put the music on for you. Don’t worry. Some retreat centers already have a music system in their dining room. Many of them do in South Africa.
The directors will know better where people are on the retreat, so you don’t want them to be singing, Alleluia choruses in the first week, when people are praying through the first week and the same in the third week, you don’t want to have Alleluia choruses. On the other hand, you also don’t want the reverse. In the fourth week, you don’t want them, playing St. John’s Passion or something like that. So, you want to make sure that the music is applicable.
Generally, it’s much better for the music to be classical and not modern and not with vocals. Well known hymns or songs, even if only the melodies should be avoided [00:41:00] because they can be evocative of and potentially distracting to the people. It’s often best to have music that is varied and also music that can fit the mood. You have to think about this and plan this ahead of time. This is part of that remote planning as well.
It’s best maybe not to have music at breakfast and to have breakfast in silence; then music at the other two meals. For some retreats, the first time I did the exercises in a 30-day format, we had silence at breakfast, we had music at lunch, and in the evening, there was a spiritual book that was read to us. One also has to be careful about that, and the kind of book that you choose needs to be well thought through.
If possible, it’s helpful to visit the retreat center so that you can see what particular things might be needed for this specific retreat [00:42:00] and to make sure that the place is suitable for you and for what you want to do. Don’t be fooled by pictures that you see of retreat centers on the internet. They photoshop things, etc. It might be good to actually visit the center because you’re investing a lot there so that you can actually see and get a feel for the place yourself.
At the number four there—Welcoming and Beginning—you want to right at the beginning, give people a sense of the lay of the land. You want to show people the place and the space and make them feel as welcome as possible. That’s important. They’re going to be spending 34 days there. Sometimes it’s helpful to give people a little map of the property so they know where things are, and they can find things. This will have to be prepared beforehand. You need to give clear instructions about the place and the areas that they can go and what they can do and so forth.
If for example, there’s a retreat center and then just next door to the retreat center maybe is the [00:43:00] manager’s house, and that’s a “no go “area, you need to explain, please don’t go beyond that fence, this is the manager’s house, so people know, and they feel that they know the environment.
It’s good to check the rooms. You might want to do something nice in the rooms. You may want to put flowers in the room when the people arrive, or there’s a retreat center that sometimes puts a chocolate on the pillow when people arrive—just to make it as welcoming as possible.
Let’s take a quick look at the overview of the retreat. So, you have those preparation days, which is plus minus two days, and then you’ll have the disposition days—the Principal and Foundation, the disposition, and the first week that takes about 10 days. Then you have a repose day; that’s one day. The second week takes about another 10 days or so. Then you have the second repose day, and then you have the third and [00:44:00] the fourth weeks, which take about seven days. There’s an extra day if you need it, and then you’ll have the two days for the debrief.
So, that’s just a broad overview of what it looks like. You have the two days preparation, disposition, Principle and Foundation, the first week about 10 days, a repose day and the second week about 10 days. You have a repose day, and then the third and fourth weeks, which are about seven days. You have a day extra if you need it, and then you have those two days for the debrief.
In the preparation days, it just allows the people to get acclimatized to the place, both to the center and to the surrounding area—where they may be able to walk or what they will be able to do. It also gives a chance for each director to begin meeting with and connecting with their retreatants, but it also helps people just to get a sense of who else is on the retreats as well.
So, it’s [00:45:00] nice at the beginning to bring everybody together, and for them to do a little introduction and to say a little bit about themselves, where they come from, what they do because people are coming and this is a personal journey, but it’s also a communal journey. We journey personally, but we journey together as a community. So, it’s good for everyone to connect; for people to know who the other participants on the retreat are. It gives time to slow down and get into a reflective space.
Those preparation days are also just helping people make the transition from life into the retreat. It gives a little disposition space in which there may also be time to do some teaching about prayer or to get them to reflect a little on their faith journey. Remember they would have already written this—maybe just to get them to go a little bit deeper. It’s an important time because unlike the retreat in daily life there’s little time to spend in the disposition days so those preparation days are quite [00:46:00] important to set the tone to transition and to get things going.
Usually, people would arrive midafternoon. They might have a relaxed evening supper, and then the two full days before beginning the retreat properly on the evening of the second full day and entering, of course, then as well into the silence.
Different directors handle the preparation days in different ways. Some leave them very relaxed with only a few structured activities. For example, they may have a faith sharing. Others like to do a fair bit of teaching about Ignatian prayer. What you decide to do with this time depends on what you judge the needs of the group is that you have on retreat. Hence, as well, also knowing something about the people who are coming, because that’s important in terms of what you’re going to do in those preparation days.
Then the repose days and the tomb day—there are two repose days. Ideally, these should come at the end of the first week and the end of the second week. And this may not [00:47:00] work out for everyone as people move through the exercises at different paces, but generally, for logistical reasons, one would try to keep the same day for everyone unless there’s a compelling reason for a particular retreatant to have the repose day at a different time. That’s generally rare. You want to try and make sure that everyone has a repose day at the same time.
So, in those 10 days, for example, of the first week, some people may start to wind up the first week on day eight, day nine and other people may need day 10. So, you just you want to try in as far as you can to bring everybody together for that repose day.
Now the repose day is not a break day. It’s a day when the demands of the silence and prayer are somewhat relaxed to give people a breather from the intensity of the retreat. I think one needs to explain the concept of repose day very carefully, and this can be done in a group briefing [00:48:00] on the morning of the repose day itself.
Maybe even in the preparation days, one can explain there’s going to be repose days, but I think it’s quite important to explain and emphasize that they should not share the content of what is going on in the retreat with each other because different people may move at different paces, and different directors have different styles, and people will not have all received identical material. So, comparing notes can be counterproductive for the retreatants themselves. So, it’s best to say, don’t share any of the content of the retreat.
It’s generally important for retreatants to have a change of scene and to leave the center. This may also give the center staff a day to clean, and if they want to mow grass, they can mow grass. If they want to change bedding or so forth, they can do all that. Hence again, the importance of the communication with the staff of the center.
The outing [00:49:00] should be a change of scene but still be a reflective environment. So, as you heard last week, you can go to the beach if it’s near the sea or the botanical gardens, you can walk in the woods. You can go into the woods and have a picnic together or whatever, but it still should maintain that reflective environment. You’re not going to go into the middle of a city and go to the busiest shopping mall or whatever the case is. That’s not what we do on the repose day. And it’s good to choose two different venues for the two repose days. You don’t do the same thing twice.
We found it most helpful for them to be together as a group on a repose day. They’re different schools of thought about whether the director should accompany the group on the repose day. It can be good to stay connected to the group. Introverted directors may desperately need a day off [00:50:00] themselves because directors get tired too, as the time progresses. For example, the two 30-day retreats I’ve had, the directors have never come with us on the repose day.
The retreatants should be encouraged to pray in the morning, then the group leaves after breakfast, and they come back around 4 p. m. in the afternoon, they can chat during that time. After the intensity of the first week, the repose day can be a time of laughter and relaxation. The group itself generally becomes aware of how much they have connected in the silence of the previous 10 days. The silence generally starts again with the communal liturgy that you have in the evening.
On the tomb day, which is the day between the third and the fourth weeks, there’s usually no meeting with the director, no structured prayer, but unlike the repose days, they stay on site in silence in that waiting space, as we explained. Usually the [00:51:00] director will give the person guidance as to how they spend the tomb day at the direction session before the tomb day, and at some retreat centers, there’s no communal Eucharist or communal prayer on that day. The tomb day can be an opportunity as well for the directors to take a much-needed break.
The debrief at the end of the retreat—there are two relaxed days of debrief, like deep sea divers who have surfaced slow. You want them to surface slowly. You don’t want people coming out of the retreat and rushing back into life. It’s an intense experience that they’ve been in, so you want to slowly try and help them come back to the surface, so to speak. It allows them to come up a little bit and make an adjustment, a transition back into ordinary life.
Saint Ignatius says—
Upon moving from a warm to a cold room, a person can easily catch a sudden chill [00:52:00] unless he takes care to preserve his or her heat
In the same way, a person finishing the exercises and returning to his or her everyday life and dealings can all too easily lose in a quite short time the fervor and light they have received.
This is especially true in as much as whatever good they have received has not yet been solidified into a habit. But there’s still a kind of impulse which can easily slacken or even die out altogether. When this happens, the entire fruit and the entire labor of the exercises vanishes.
So, people have different reactions to the retreat ending. Some may be relieved that this retreat is over. Others may find it very hard to move out of the retreat space. There may be some anxiety and concern about how to sustain the graces received going forward.
Usually at the end of the 30-day retreat, it’s also the end [00:53:00] of a person’s contact with the person that has been directing them, and so there may be a sense of loss there, giving time for goodbyes, also giving time for retreatants to say goodbye to each other is an important part of this. It’s important to think of how they will navigate this transition back and how you’ll guide them in navigating this transition back into their ordinary lives. You may want to spend some time sharing as a group some of the graces that people have received. You need to work this out for yourself.
The pattern of the day—it’s important to have a clear and regular structure to the day on the 30-day retreat. So, breakfast, meeting with the director, lunch, a daily liturgy in common, supper, and then optional, maybe In the Catholic tradition, adoration or prayer together in the evenings, prayer periods in between these [00:54:00] events with some regular form of exercise to encourage people to walk or to run or to swim or to do gardening— whatever else they want to do.
It is good to have those set things in place, and to have a regular structure to the day, and to encourage the retreatant right at the beginning that the meals and the common prayer time is set in the evenings, then encourage the people to set their own times in between those times for the prayer, so that there’s a pattern to the day; there’s a regularity; there is a rhythm to the day.
The director themselves—just to say a few things about the director and their prayer—often directing a retreat can have quite an impact on one’s own prayer, and this can be for good, or maybe also it can be a bit of a struggle. Sometimes the experience of directing and praying for your retreatants can lead you into a time of real [00:55:00] consolation in prayer. If this happens, give thanks to God. Other times, director’s prayer can become dry and maybe even hard work. So also, sometimes issues in your own prayer can come up and just be careful not to work on these through your direction of the retreatants.
It is strongly recommended that you do not use the same material for prayer as your retreatant. The scripture passages that you give to the retreatants, for example, or the exercises themselves: do not use the same material. This can create confusion; what’s my stuff and what’s their stuff? So don’t pray the same material.
It might be important for you to keep notes of what you have given each retreatant, especially if you’re seeing three people, because it can become confusing to recall exactly which material you gave to which retreatant on which day. So have a little notepad, and when the person leaves, maybe just jot [00:56:00] down for yourself what you gave the person.
It’s important for the directors to come to the retreat well rested. As the retreat progresses, directors, as well as the directees can become tired. It’s a demanding program with perhaps up to four or five directees, preparing liturgy, preaching, the supervision: you need to be aware that this pace can make you tired. So, it’s important for the directors as well to take time off. Go for regular exercise, sleep well, have balanced meals. Take good care of yourself because tiredness levels flow during the different dynamics of this retreat as well.
It’s important to watch the dynamics on the team. Often tensions can build up amongst the team on the 30-day retreat. This can be from the growing tiredness in the directors, not having an outlet from the intensity, maybe even sometimes a bad spirit at work. This can happen [00:57:00] individually in the director on the level of your personal, but also amongst the directors themselves. That’s another reason to keep praying during the retreat and to share openly with your fellow directors and the supervisor. It can also be important to try and have a social now and then with the other directors, if possible, outside the retreat center, just simply to relax and unwind and get some distance from the retreat center.
Whether for inexperienced or experienced directors, supervision is important. Refresh yourself on the purpose of supervision, anonymity, how to prepare, etc. Normally the supervision will happen in a group, either using a peer model, if the directors are experienced, or using a facilitated group model with less experienced directors. Sometimes the supervision can also be individual.
Generally, supervision happens every day of the retreat, apart from the repose days—that needs to be factored into the timetable of the director, and this is one of the [00:58:00] reasons it’s important not to take on too many directees as well. It’s important to have a supervisor daily, because a lot of what happens in a day on a 30- day retreat with four or five hours of prayer can impact on you and of course also on the directee.
Because of the intensity of the retreat, there’s a greater likelihood of positive or negative transference happening. There’s usually also a need for a kind of nuts-and-bolts section at the end of supervision for the directors to check in logistically. So, for example, who’s preparing the liturgy for these days or who’s making sure there’s music or whatever. It also helps the directors.
The daily liturgies and daily Eucharists are an important part of the exercises and full participation should be encouraged. The reason is in part that it is the one time of the day when all the retreatants come together and can pray with and for one [00:59:00] another. We have to be aware of ecumenical issues, people from different churches. In a context where they are Catholics, the daily Eucharist will be an important part of the retreat for most people. However, those who are not Catholic, it may not be experienced as helpful. If something communal is an obstacle to the retreat, people should not be pressured to attend, at least not every single day. So, just to be aware of that as well.
If there is a daily Eucharist and there’s going to be a homily or some preaching, the homily should be short—five minutes or so, and a topic relevant to where people are on the retreat. Now sometimes this can be difficult because people are not all in the same space or because the set of readings do not support the homily on that stage if you have a set liturgical calendar.
So, it’s usually possible to say something general enough to speak to everyone who is present. The [01:00:00] homilies are intended to complement the process of the retreat and must not distract the people that are on the retreat.
Music at this gathering—it is good to have some singing rather than none. If you’ve got a mixed group, well known things rather than less known things, because you want everyone to be able to partake and to participate. It can be simple, rather than complex. You may want to play some recorded music sometimes. For example, in the Catholic situation in the post communion period meditation moment, you may want to play some music.
Make sure that you’ve got the hymn books or the hymn sheets and that they are ready. If you’ve got a mixed group, just be sensitive to people who come from different backgrounds and traditions, because we want all people to feel welcome.
In the Catholic context, you may also want to have other sacraments available, like the Sacrament of Healing. It’s also possible to have maybe a healing service at some [01:01:00] point in the retreat if the directors deem that this would be helpful in one of the evening liturgies.
So finally, just to say in closing remarks, something very simple; it’s a beautiful experience. I think what’s key is to always remember that it is God’s spirit that is running the show. We need to do our part. We need to do our part, but it’s God’s spirit ultimately that’s running this, not us, and we must always remember what Ignatius says at the beginning of the exercises, let God be God and let the creator deal directly with the creature. Just always keep in mind what our role is as directors on this 30-day retreat.
I’m sorry I’m a bit over time; there’s a lot to cover. We’ve reached the end of what I wanted to say. You’ll see Pam has put some reflection questions [01:02:00] up.
What strikes you about preparing the 30-day retreat?
You may want to just think through that.
What possibilities could be created in your own context to offer the exercises in this format?
You may just want to spend a bit of time reflecting on that. We’ll enter now into a time of reflection, also a break, and I think we can come back to go into our rooms at 20 past the hour. That just gives you 12 minutes. I went on a bit longer than I was planning. Thank you.[01:03:00]
Annemarie: Welcome back, everybody. You know the drill. The screen is open. Monica.
Monica: I just had a quick question, Russell. You didn’t mention in the application process, do you require people to have done a silent retreat like an eight-day or three-day or something before they do the 30-day? Would you always have that requirement just that they have experience with silence? Or not?
Russell: Yes, I think that’s important. My personal opinion is that someone needs to have done an eight-day retreat, at least, but, maybe even more than one, because I think [01:04:00] they really do need an experience of the silence and the rhythm. So, I would see that as quite important. Yeah. I don’t know, Annemarie if you want to say anything.
Annemarie: I have known one person who went into a 30-day not having done anything else and had a wonderful retreat, but I think that’s absolutely the exception. And I think you don’t want to play around with that possibility of “it might work.”
Chances are that it’s quite a risk to take someone into a silent retreat when they don’t know how they’re going to respond to the silence so I’m with Russell. I personally. would not be keen to do that. I would rather they had at least one, preferably two eight-day retreats.
Russell: In my experience, even the silence of eight days versus silence over 30 days, that’s quite a big jump in itself because, you do it for eight days and this is great or whatever. But, that 30 days [1:05:00] can be very difficult if people are not used to it, So, I think it’s important.
Annemarie: And if Brenda wants to add anything. Brenda?
Russell: No, she says she’s fine.
Brenda: Nothing to add.
Russell: Heather.
Heather: Russell, do you often have or ever had the experience of people wanting to stop and go home—get homesick? Does that ever happen, because I would think I would get very homesick.
Russell: I’m just thinking back on my own experience. In my first experience, there was a point where I thought, I am done with this now; I need to get out of here. This is where the sort of discernment of spirit comes in.
I don’t know. I’ve never experienced anybody leave because they’re homesick or whatever. I know someone who [01:06:00] left because they got seriously ill and they had to go—literally, the person was hospitalized. They got pneumonia. Annemarie, you experienced people leave because they’re homesick.
Annemarie: I’ve known someone to leave because they had a kind of a mental breakdown halfway through the retreat; not someone that I was directing personally, but I know from the experience of that. I’ve never heard of anyone being so homesick that they wanted to leave. I think it’s such a big thing to make the retreat and people don’t make that decision lightly to give up 30 days and to invest that amount of money. You have to be pretty sure this is something you desperately want. People probably are a bit homesick sometimes, but it’s almost the sense that this is a once in a lifetime thing, and you’ve psyched yourself up for it. So I think maybe that’s why you don’t tend to get too much of that, that I’ve heard of.
Russell: The time I got [01:07:00] fed up was towards the end of the first week and I thought, I must pack this up and I must go now. I think there’s another part of this. I think once people get into the dynamic, it’s almost like the dynamic carries you through as well, and if you get into the rhythm, it’s quite amazing what happens because you actually are very present there, and you almost do forget about everything else, because I just think the dynamic and the rhythm itself sort of draws you in, you know?
Heather: Yes, thank you.
Russell: Liz.
Liz: You’ve said that this is a once in a lifetime experience, but then you’ve said that you’ve done it twice, and so is it more than once in a lifetime for some people?
Russell: So, we Jesuits do it twice. We do it right at the beginning when we first join, and then maybe 15 or 20 years into being a Jesuit, we do it [01:08:00] again. So, we do it twice. Some people do it twice. We say once in a lifetime in the sense that for most people, they’ve got to invest the money, the time; it’s over a month for people. So, when we say once in a lifetime, for many people, they are only going to have the opportunity to experience this maybe once in their lives. Us Jesuits are a little bit different in the sense that this is just part of the way that we are trained.
Someone could do it twice. I know someone who’s not a Jesuit, for example, who has done it twice in their life almost 36 or 37 years apart. So, I guess if you’ve got the resources and the time, you could do it again. But also, you wouldn’t want to do it close back-to-back. I think there’s wisdom in for many of us, it’s 15 to 20 years between doing it as well. You’re not going to be doing it every five years or something like that.
Liz: I did the extended 40 years apart, and so, [01:09:00] would people do the extended often twice, also?
Russell: Yeah, some people do, I think. You’re talking about the retreat in daily life?
Liza: Yeah.
Russell: Yeah. Some people do. Some people do it in daily life first, and maybe they’ve got children, and they are parents, and they are busy, and they can do it in their daily life. And later on, when the kids have moved on, someone might decide, I’m going to do it in the 30-day mode. Yeah, I think, different things for different folks.
Liz: Thank you.
Annemarie: I think it’s something about saying this is a rare and precious experience that doesn’t come around much.
Russell: We give eight-day retreats enclosed retreats. We are finding that a lot of people even find that quite hard. So, they get 15 days leave a year in South African law so it’s a good chunk [01:10:00] of their leave that’s taken up. Also, the escalating costs, let’s face it. These enclosed retreats are becoming more expensive when you talk about accommodation, and directors and food, etc. as well. So, in that sense, it is maybe a gift that for many people only comes around once. Gavin, I saw your hand.
Gavin: Yeah, just to say, Russell, that I was privileged to be on a well-organized 34 day where the communal experience was one that we drew a lot of strength from. We had really well-done liturgies together. And then, I don’t know if you remember, Anne-Marie, but we used to meet not just in the chapel, but we had another separate room where we’d all meet together after supper.
A lot of the retreatants were tired, but just all meeting together for that close of the day [01:11:00] experience, I found that extremely helpful. So, I just wanted to mention the whole thing of you draw strength from the community together.
Russell: I think that’s a very important part of the dynamic. We’re coming personally, and we’re making a personal journey with the Lord, but we also entering into a communal space and that thing as well of having a time of the day when you’re all together at the end of the day in the same room, even if it’s just for half an hour where people are praying for each other.
You draw strength from the sense of being part of this community; we are in this together. We are praying for each other. I guess the way I would describe it is sometimes that carries you, and so if you’ve had a kind of hard day and you’re in desolation, that experience can be very helpful in carrying you,
Annemarie: And even just observing other people on the retreat, because if you’re going through a time where it’s hard to pray and you’re struggling, just noticing somebody else who’s really in it and managing that rhythm can also just help you to get back [01:12:00] into it.
I remember an elderly man on my 30-day retreat. He was in his mid 80s, I think, and I really admired the way that he came into prayer. It was so interesting, because in the meantime, he was admiring the fact that I was in my mid-twenties and by far the youngest person there and he was thinking, if she can do it, I must be able to do it. So inadvertently, the two of us were giving each other strength from different perspectives just by the sense of being in a shared community and helping each other by that presence somehow in the down times.
Russell: So, you don’t know people really well. I didn’t know some of the people that I was with very well in the second time I did it. What I found amazing was when we had the first Repose Day, we did all do something together. I did it in Portland and Oregon, and we [01:13:00] went for a walk in the forest there in the woods and we had a picnic, and it was just interesting how being in silence together created almost like a familiar feeling, even though you didn’t really know people well. It’s incredible what happened in that silence. This was ten years ago, and even now, some of us are still in contact with each other. I think that it sort of grew in that silence in a very Interesting way. We were not allowed to talk at all about the retreat, so we were talking about trees and rivers and sisters and brothers and whatever else. Shirley.
Shirley: Thank you for that. I have two questions. One, you say to go on an eight-day retreat first. Is the eight-day retreat that you’re speaking of Ignatian orientated or is it just any eight-day silent [01:14:00] retreat that you’re talking about would probably be my first question on that.
Russell: So, my bias would be to say, I think an Ignatian eight-day retreat would be helpful because it lays the foundation for the experience of the 30 days in terms of the Ignatian ways of praying, the dynamic of the day and things like that. I guess if people have done another kind of retreat in silence, they could. The silence is a big part of it, but I also think just almost going into something where you know, more or less what the dynamic is going to be or how the day works could be helpful beforehand, and therefore, I have a bias towards an Ignatian retreat, but that wouldn’t be a hard and fast thing. I think the important thing is that person has had an experience of silence for eight days.
Annemarie: I think it can also be helpful to have had an experience of accompaniment; [01:15:00] obviously, for that person to have been in spiritual direction or spiritual accompaniment for a while.
Ideally, I think the thing about the eight-day retreat, in addition to the silence that I think would be useful is the experience of articulating what’s happening in one’s prayer in a retreat context because many eight-day retreats are preached retreats. So, people come, they listen to the talk, they go away, they pray, and maybe in the course of eight days, they might have a quick little 10-minute chat with the retreat leader if there’s a problem or something, but they don’t necessarily get that experience of talking about their prayer journey. I think that’s a hugely helpful thing to have some facility with before you go into the 30-day retreat if you want to get the most out of it I
Shirley: Thank you. Because of my location and because of cost, this is not [01:16:00] something that very many people in my world would do for various reasons, but those are two big ones. I’m wondering, has anybody ever tried like a two-day retreat coming together on the weekend and then following the Ignatian exercises through for three weeks and then meeting again for a two-day retreat. Then the next week doing something like that for three weeks or four weeks or whatever and then doing a two-day retreat—just some kind of a hybrid of something. Has that ever been tried? Is that a dumb idea?
Annemarie: Are you talking about an individual doing that or a group doing it? Or a number of people on the same process doing it?
Shirley: Both and or? Just brainstorming and thinking how to make it feasible.
Annemarie: One of the problems I think would be if you did it with a [01:17:00] number of people is that they’re going to move through the exercises at different paces.
and that’s going to be intensified in that process and so I think part of the difficulty would be managing that dynamic because you’d have people in quite different places. It wouldn’t necessarily be impossible in the sense that if you’re meeting with everyone, one on one the whole way through, whether enclosed and in daily life; it’s possible, but it would be quite tricky.
There is that thing of the exercises in stages where you have a 15-day block and another 15-day block. I know you’re not talking about big blocks like that but just as a kind of template to start with, and in the middle section, you have a kind of “in daily life” bit. That’s probably the most that it’s been experimented with or developed; yeah, that’s the hybrid version.
Shirley: Okay.
Annemarie: So, I’m not sure how it would [01:18:00] work. I think there’s something quite different about the dynamic of an in daily life retreat to the dynamic of an in-person retreat. So, we have got that thing where, you’re taking someone through the exercises in daily life and in the third week, for example, you might do an enclosed retreat for three days.
Or when you’re doing the key meditations of the second week, you might do a three day. I think that’s more feasible as a good kind of model, because you can compromise the gifts of both the “in daily life” model and
“the enclosed model” by gaining none of the real benefits of either in a sense, if you go back and forth too quickly.
Shirley: That’s helpful.
Russell: I just don’t think you can capture the dynamic of the enclosed retreat by doing it. I think we just have to make a choice and say we’re going to do this or that. I remember in Cape Town, Annemarie, didn’t Graham try some sort of version of this? [01:19:00]
I was not involved, but I was living there, and I heard about it. I think it lost something myself from what I heard. I think you lose a little bit of each, and I don’t think you can get into the dynamic of each either, and I think like a weekend or two days—it’s very short to do much, but people do experiment. So, it has been tried.
Brenda: Yeah, I was also going to just say—I think that the energy that would go into coming into a two-day acclimatizing, you wouldn’t actually gain any of the intimacy of an enclosed retreat. So, I’ve resonated with the others.
I have done the sort of daily life and then the third week in [01:20:00] a retreat setting and that’s worked, but even that for me, and I know others do that routinely. It’s not part of what I do routinely so people work out what works for them.
Rhonda: I have a question.
Russell: Rhonda.
Rhonda: Yes, I was just thinking about retreat centers here in the U.S. and wondering if you all have seen a group retreat setting done well, and are there any to look into as far as [01:21:00] sending people to one or going myself? I’m right by Sacred Heart in Sedalia, but it looks like they’re individual retreats. I like the idea of the group, but this sounds so much more.
Annemarie: There’s something in Los Altos in California.
Russell: Yeah, I worked there. So, I know the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos in California. Every year, they do have a block where they do the 30-day retreat. They have a number of directors who come in.
There’s also a place in Gloucester, somewhere near New York, where I know they do it as well, and there’s somewhere down south. Do you remember that guy who worked at the Institute, Anne Marie? The Jesuit who wrote all those reflections that were turned into a book. He became a director—the American guy who was here who worked at the Institute, and he wrote all those reflections, and eventually they got [01:22:00] published.
He came for a Tertian experiment. Anyway, he went somewhere down in the south. I want to say it’s somewhere in Atlanta. There’s a Jesuit retreat center there that also does the same thing, that every year they offer the 30-day experience, and they have a number of experienced directors who would work together and in Los Altos, they can take up to 20, 30, 35 people because It’s a big facility for that retreat.
Annemarie: Tracy’s put one in there that really looks like a lovely one. It’s certainly on my bucket list of places to go—an Eastern Point Retreat Center. So, you might want to click on the link and or copy it. Where is that again, Tracy? I’ve just seen the beautiful photos.
Tracy: That’s the one in Gloucester that Russell was talking about so it’s on the east coast of the country, but it’s gorgeous. It’s right on the ocean and everybody gets like a little balcony room that overlooks [01:23:00] the sea. And so, I highly recommend it, but they do also the same thing where they do a group 30-day retreat in January and a group 30-day retreat in July.
Liz: Tracy, is that in New York?
Tracy: No, it’s actually about an hour north of Boston, Massachusetts.
Rhonda: Thank you.
Russell: If you Google, there’s a number of Jesuit retreats and there are others as well. There are a number of them that do this. I think on the conference site of the American Assistancy, I think there’s a list of these places. I’ll look at it. I will send it.
Rhonda: Thanks. That’d be wonderful.
Russell: Yeah, the Ignatius House in Atlanta. I think that’s the one [01:24:00] as well. Thanks, Pam.
For those who are intrepid explorers, there’s a big Jesuit retreat house. It’s in quite a lovely setting in Nairobi, in Kenya. It’s called Mongwaza, and I know as well that they offer the 30-day retreat there once or twice a year as well to a group
Annemarie: Or come to the wonderful retreat center in Benoni where Trevor does 30-day retreats.
Russell: [01:25:00] B E N O N I. I can put it in the chat. I will have to tell Trevor that Benoni got a special mention. There we go.
Rhonda: What big city would you fly into to get to Benoni?
Russell: Johannesburg.
Annemarie: It’s about 20 minutes from the airport in Johannesburg. It’s the quickest place to get to. I don’t think it parallel places like Eastern Point in terms of beauty. We just have to mention that, but it does have Trevor nearby.
Rhonda: Does he do groups like this too? I know he did the two people.
Annemarie: Well, he hasn’t yet, but you never know.
Russell: He might be up for convincing.
Rhonda: Okay.
Russell: We can tell him, Annemarie that we volunteered you to give a 30-day retreat to a group[01:26:00] when you weren’t there.
Rhonda: That’s what happens when you don’t show up.
Gavin: I just wanted to say that Annemarie and Trevor sounds to me like a very good combination.
Annemarie: Thanks, Gavin. MaddyChristine.
MaddyChristine: I think you mentioned this before Annemarie; can you refresh my memory? I was thinking that in order to offer the 30-day, it probably would be helpful to have done the 30-day. I don’t know if I remember that correctly. Let’s say that I have guided a few people in just a daily life and I’m noticing that I would love to offer the 30-day at some point.
In our little group, we were like how are you feeling? I’m like, Oh, I just was like, tell me more. But how [01:27:00] do you go about if you’re interested in offering that? I just looked quickly at one of these links and they offer it, so I’m assuming there are guides for that. So, how does something like that work? Would it be me just really finding other guides and then we produced a whole thing ourselves. How does that work?
Annemarie: I think that maybe there are two bits to this. Last week, we were saying to give a 30-day retreat, you’d kind of want a couple of things to be in place. You’d want to have given the retreat in daily life a couple of times if you haven’t made the 30-day yourself, in an enclosed format. You want to be really familiar with the dynamics. So, you’ve given it more than once—several times, ideally in the 19th annotation, and that you yourself have had the experience of directing maybe an eight-day retreat and having been on an eight-day retreat so you get a sense of what the difference is between the feel of an enclosed retreat and a retreat in daily [01:28:00] life.
You should try and find an experienced supervisor, someone who has previously directed a 30-day retreat. It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who’s, on site. It could be someone via Zoom or whatever, but you need to find somebody who’s had that experience before because it’s a different kettle of fish to doing it in daily life. And then yes, I think it’s not easy to get to direct in established retreat houses. I may be wrong, Russell will know better than me, but my sense is that in some parts of the U.S., the Jesuits there are not really all that ecumenical yet and so just showing up and saying, we’ve had some people who were trained previously that who immigrated to the U.S. who were really well trained, who did ask to direct in, in those places and we’re told that they were only using Catholic directors.
So, I think there’s a real problem there and I hope that will [01:29:00] shift in time and maybe it is shifting in some spaces, but I think maybe it’s a thing about getting maybe one or two other people together who are keen—maybe from your cohort or others who’ve really studied the exercises and sourcing a supervisor from somewhere, whether South Africa or, someone in the US who’s done it.
Maybe setting up a small one to start with somewhere and finding a retreat house and saying, we’d like to book X number of rooms. That would be my thought about it. I’d be really interested to know what Russell has to say and if Brenda’s got any ideas, too. And Kathi, because Kathy knows the U.S. setup and the 30-day retreat rules.
Russell: I worked there, so I know at Los Altos, sometimes it depends on who the director of the center is and when I was there, the Jesuit who was in charge, I think he was very open, and I remember that they were preparing for the 30-day retreat. I was leaving just before it. And I remember that they were basically [01:30:00] saying to people, if you’ve been trained, if you’ve got an experience, like basically we are willing to consider you. So, they were willing to give people opportunities if they came with some sort of a reference order. That was at Los Altos.
I don’t know what they do in other places. And I also know the fellow who was a director there is lovely man. He passed away, but I think the guy who is now in charge there was there in my time as well. At the beginning, it was only Jesuits who did this, but, as we get thinner and thinner, they are certainly creating opportunities there for other people.
I wanted to suggest that it’s just something that we do here fairly often, and we’re always looking for directors. Why don’t you come to South Africa and give us a hand?
MaddyChristine: I’ll get a few in.
Annemarie: Kathi? Brenda?[01:31:00] So I think we probably need to stop here, Russell. We’re at almost 25 past.
Okay, so let’s just take a moment. Thanks for that, Russell. Let’s just bring our time of sharing to a close.
I invite you to just sit comfortably for a moment to gather together what has been significant for you in the last couple of hours as we become aware of the God who has been present to us and who is always present to us.[01:32:00]
I’m going to just end with this prayer of blessing from Ephesians 3: 14-21—
This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name:
Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus
forever and ever. Amen.
So, thank you all. The first batch of assignments are winging their way to you or some of [01:34:00] you in the next day. I’ve sent Pam a first lot and I’m working on the next ones. So, I’m sorry that you haven’t all got them yet, but you will very soon. We’ll see you before Thanksgiving, so we’ll get to wish you a happy one still. Okay. So have a good week. Take care.