Retreat-Holidays
Individually Guided Retreats
An individually guided retreat is an opportunity to grow in relationship with God. As an aspect of that developing relationship, retreatants often come to understand more about prayer, about themselves, and about how to discern the will of God in their lives.
The retreat journey is not made alone. Each day an experienced retreat guide is available to help the retreatant explore past and present experiences of God, different styles of prayer and ways of responding to Scripture, the relationship between faith and daily living, and other aspects of the spiritual life. There is no coercion in this: the guide will listen with respect and without judgement, and offer suggestions, which the retreatant is free to follow or set aside.
We meet God in our hopes and fears, our feelings, thoughts and desires. And so it is during a retreat: we may have new insights, experience a range of emotions, recall joyful and painful memories, have significant dreams. It is good to have a companion with whom to share these, someone who can help us reflect on them and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx discern the Spirit at work.
Retreat guides try always to be sensitive to the language, images and experience of retreatants, and to discern in them the leadings of God. In proposing readings from Scripture or other activities, guides will wish not to control the retreat but to be responsive to what is already happening, and to co-operate with the action of the Spirit.
Retreat guides offer help in the
Ignatian way of praying with
Scripture: you spend time
visualising the scene of a Bible text
and imagining yourself as part of it.
If it is a gospel story, you speak to Jesus and he speaks to you. These
imagined conversations don't
usually happen instantly - before
your imagination gets going, you
generally need time and quiet for
the text to sink in and for the Holy
Spirit to work on your
subconscious.
Outside their sessions with their retreat guide, retreatants are invited simply to be: to be inwardly quiet, to be open to what happens, to attend to thoughts, emotions and moods - and perhaps to keep some kind of record of this in a simple journal (for their own eyes only).
Being attentive and aware does not necessarily require physical stillness, and many people find that inward stillness is promoted by some gentle physical activity, such as walking, swimming, knitting or painting. It is not advisable, however, to read or to listen to the radio because those activities can drown the whisper of the Holy Spirit.
Individually Guided Retreats are available by arrangement at dates to suit (subject to availability) at Mount St Joseph in Malta, at the Emmaus Centre near Dublin and at our two Caribbean retreat centres: Mount Tabor in Antigua and Holy Redeemer in Dominica. Just ask us! 
Malta: Mount Saint Joseph Dublin: Emmaus