"We need for that such a silence and leisure as we get in a good retreat; what one of the mystics called a "rest most busy." (Evelyn Underhill, "Light of Christ", p. 105)
For Underhill, the retreat was a sort of reconnecting with what the Lord was and is doing within a person's life. There is nothing special or formulaic or inherent within the retreat to make a person more spiritual, but it is the reorienting of a life away from distraction and toward an "awestruck upward glance which is the mark of the spiritual man" (Light of Christ, 102), that makes the retreat so important.
"I believe the retreat as a part of our normal spiritual routine will yield on the whole its fullest results when we regard it
more often and more generally, in Abbot Delatte's beautiful phrase, as an opportunity of "steeping our souls in the
beauty of the mysterious." To dwell quietly and without self-occupation in the atmosphere of God is surely the best
of all ways of redressing the balance between the temporal and eternal sides of our life." (Light of Christ, 105).
I don't think that I can deny that my routines often result in a more temporal outlook on life, a pre-occupation with my job, my family, hobbies, the immediate accessibility of messages through media, but if I could reflect for but a moment, I would immediately admit that I long for something more than temporal. The retreat helps one to get away, to find some type of renewal in the eternal and to allow for growth in direct relationship with God. For Underhill, the objective of the retreat was the same object as the Christian life:
"Sanctity---the production, fostering and maintenance of holiness...Now souls are sanctified by the pressure and
cleansing action of the Spirit, acting through and in the events of everyday life...And how is that produced? Perhaps
most easily and directly by taking the soul from its normal preoccupation and placing it in an atmosphere and
condition which, with the minimum of distraction, it can attend to and realize God. And this is the essence of
retreat." (LIght of Christ, 106).
I think it would go without saying, that all ministers should retreat, but Underhill would take it a step further and say that all believers should take personal retreats. One way to do this is to find a spiritual director and follow the direction of how to retreat from them. A spiritual director can also give a few things to focus on for the retreat and perhaps could even write up the retreat for you. What this means though, is that you we need to make time to retreat. Certainly, retreat is not the just another thing to add to an already busy and over committed lifestyle, it is to find rest in Christ and develop a keen awareness of the movement of God in life. Underhill has this warning:
"I don't mean by this to recommend the retreat for merely practical reasons---because it makes the effective active
Christian even more active and effective than before. I would rather recommend it because it puts in the foreground
and keeps in the foreground that which is, after all, the first interest of religion---so easily lost sight of---the one thing
needful---the soul's relation to God." (Light of Christ, 104)
I suppose that most people who would read a post like this would have some understanding the retreat is good for one's soul's relation to God, but I suppose that most don't take time to retreat. I have had the opportunity to retreat at a mission located in the San Diego area, full 8 hour retreats of silence, and it is a "rest most busy", but all that Underhill talks about for a retreat resonates so deeply with me as a retreatant (Not sure if this is a word). I don't want this post to be done, I would love to hear of places to retreat all over the globe. For Underhill, it was the Pleshey House (The St, Chelmsford, Essex CM3 1HA, United Kingdom), where should people retreat, Please share in the comments.
List of places to retreat: (click on links)
San Luis Rey Mission (San Diego)
Pleshey House (Essex, UK)
Ashburnham Place (Essex, UK)
Mission San Antonio de Padua (Los Angelos)
Whitefield (Virginia)
Find the Divine Centers (Centers all over the United States)
Where else?
Spiritual Exercise:
1) Find a spiritual director within your denomination and sit underneath them and their direction.
2) Find a retreat center and take a personal retreat in order to intimately connect with Jesus.
3) Take a retreat focusing only on the Psalms, read them, meditate upon them and journal about them.
4) Help others by adding locations to retreat by commenting below.