Fr. Roger J. Landry
\nRetreat given at Sacred Heart Retreat House
\nAlhambra, California
\n\u201cEncountering Jesus\u201d
\nNovember 15-17, 2002<\/p>\n
John 12:20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, \u201cSir, we wish to see Jesus.\u201d 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, \u201cThe hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Introduction
\n\u2022 Purpose of a retreat \u2014 to encounter Jesus.
\n\u2022 In some old pulpits, they would often chisel into the wood of the pulpit certain Latin passages from the Bible to remind the preacher of what his mission is.
\n\u2022 The one that has always stuck with me comes from the passage we just heard from St. John\u2019s Gospel. \u201cIesum videre volumus.\u201d \u201cWe wish to see Jesus.\u201d
\n\u2022 I know the reason why you\u2019re here is that you wish to see Jesus. My job, like Philip\u2019s, is to bring you to him.
\n\u2022 But I know you want to do more than see him from afar. You come to come into contact with him. You want to encounter Jesus.
\n\u2022 The whole point of a retreat is to encounter the Lord, to have a deep meeting of your heart with his Sacred Heart, which loves you so much. Encountering Jesus is the title of this first conference. <\/p>\n
\u2022 This encounter involves two people, Jesus and you. Not just about you; not just about him. But about the two of you together.
\n\u2022 Sometimes our prayer can be too focused on us, especially when we\u2019re dealing with vexing personal difficulties or vocational concerns. Our prayer can atrophy and we can become as egocentric as our prayer.
\n\u2022 Sometimes our prayer can focus \u201ctoo much\u201d on Jesus, in other words, Jesus can become an \u201cobject\u201d of study rather than a \u201csubject\u201d wanting to converse with us, calling us, helping us, loving us, and inviting our response. We can focus on learning about him in Scripture, for example, and leave aside the applications of what we learn to ourselves. The point is not to get to know about Jesus but to get to know Jesus.
\n\u2022 JME: \u201cYou wrote to me: To pray is to talk with God. But about what?\u201d About what? About him, and yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, great ambitions, daily worries \u2014 even your weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions \u2014 and love and reparation. In short, to get to know him and to get to know yourself \u2014 \u201cto get acquainted.\u201d
\n\u2022 In order to encounter Jesus, the first thing we need to do is to leave other things behind.
\n\u2022 We need to leave behind certain anxieties, plans for next week or next year, and just focus on the present with Jesus.
\n\u2022 We need to leave behind much of the stuff of our past, most especially our sins. This is why they\u2019ll be ample opportunity for confession during this retreat. Put me to work!
\n\u2022 We need to leave behind all \u201cour plans\u201d for the future. This is so that we can listen more carefully to see where we fit into God\u2019s plans.
\n\u2022 We need to live in the present with Jesus.
\n\u2022 After leaving things behind, then we need to focus on Jesus himself.
\n\u2022 He must be so happy you\u2019re here!
\n\u2022 From all eternity, he knew you\u2019d be here.
\n\u2022 From all eternity, he planned on keeping this appointment, so that you could get to know him better and fall in love with him, for the first time perhaps, or much more deeply, if he already is the supreme love of your life.
\n\u2022 He loves you so much and he wants to bathe you in His love here during this time.
\n\u2022 That love will take different forms for each of you.
\n\u2022 For some, you\u2019ll be swept off your feet with consolations during these days. You\u2019ll never want this retreat to end. You\u2019ll want to build a booth for Jesus just to keep it alive, like Peter did during the Transfiguration. Cherish this moment, if the Lord gives it to you, because he\u2019ll be preparing you for battle, just like he prepared Peter, James and John, to go down the mountain, to climb another one with Him!
\n\u2022 For some, he\u2019ll introduce you into the deepest mystery of his love, what he himself experienced at the Cross. You might find yourself dry. You might feel you\u2019re abandoned, and want to cry out yourselves, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d But don\u2019t be discouraged. Sometimes the Lord allows this to happen so that he can purify our love in the crucible, to help us fall in love with the God of consolations rather than the consolations of God.
\n\u2022 St. John of the Cross: \u201cNever give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.\u201d
\n\u2022 You may want God to give you clear messages and directions, like he did to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. You might want Thunder and Lightning. But he might want to speak to you in the gentle whisper, as he did to Elijah outside a cave on Mt. Carmel.
\n\u2022 What do you need to do during this retreat?
\n\u2022 First, you need to listen.
\n\u2022 God the Father speaks only three times in the New Testament \u2014 at Jesus\u2019 baptism when he says that Jesus is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased; during the last Supper, when He says He has glorified His own name and will glorify it again; and during the transfiguration, when He says \u201cThis is my beloved Son. Listen to him!\u201d
\n\u2022 This is the Father\u2019s one imperative, the one command he gave to the Apostles.
\n\u2022 What had they been doing but listening to Jesus? They were hearing the words, but the meaning was escaping them.
\n\u2022 Story of sisters in Rome, parishioners, teachers and students at school all failing the \u201clistening test.\u201d Many don\u2019t pay attention to Sacred Scripture enough to remember the responsorial psalm, or any of the readings, minutes later.
\n\u2022 Things can go in one ear and out the other.
\n\u2022 We need to concentrate on hearing what the Lord is saying, in Sacred Scripture, in prayer, in what He might choose to say to you through me, in the events and actions of the day, the people you meet, the actions you witness, the joys and the Crosses you encounter.
\n\u2022 Then, you need to respond.
\n\u2022 \u201cBlessed is she who hears the word of God and kept it.\u201d Mary treasured the Word of God and put it into action. The Word became flesh and lived. You could touch the Word, hear the Word, taste the Lord, see the Word (cf. John 1).
\n\u2022 God wants you to live that Word as well, to let the Word, who is Jesus, change you, to become ever more like him.
\n\u2022 Every retreat is geared toward making at least one very concrete resolution. Sometimes we\u2019re led to make several. But if a retreat doesn\u2019t change us, doesn\u2019t affect the way we live and approach life, if we\u2019re not any different on Monday than we are right now, in concrete, practical ways, then it wasn\u2019t a good retreat. Perhaps it might have been entertaining. Perhaps it might have been peaceful and quiet and restful. But it wouldn\u2019t have been a good retreat.
\n\u2022 Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, perhaps the greatest preacher in American Catholic history, used to always judge how effective he was in a retreat by seeing how many lay people, religious, or priests (depending upon the crowd) he could get to make and keep one, very concrete resolution. Even if his oratory got rave reviews, if the people didn\u2019t make their own that particular resolution which he would invariably propose to them, he considered himself a failure.
\n\u2022 I, too, later on in this retreat, am going to ask you to make the same resolution that he used to propose. It will be something that will allow the good work that the Lord does here during these days to continue throughout your whole life, each day. I see my job here as geared toward helping you be able to make and keep that resolution. May the Lord help me do my job!
\n\u2022 The bottom line of what I\u2019m getting at, though, is that Jesus, who loves you so much, is going to be asking you, in one way or another, to make some choices on this retreat. He\u2019ll be asking you some questions, just as he asked other disciples before you:
\n\u2022 To some of you, he\u2019ll ask, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d
\n\u2022 To some, he\u2019ll say, \u201cDo you believe in the Son of Man?\u201d
\n\u2022 To some, \u201cN., do you love me more than these?\u201d
\n\u2022 To some, he\u2019ll say, \u201cKeep the commandments.\u201d
\n\u2022 To some, he\u2019ll give the invitation, \u201cYou lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.\u201d
\n\u2022 To some, who might want to do just that, like the Gerasene person Jesus cured, \u201cGo home to your family and friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.\u201d
\n\u2022 Whatever he asks, in whatever way he asks it, my prayer is that you will have the same receptivity and love that a girl much younger than you had, when she, having been freed from sin from the first moment of her existence, said \u201cLet it be done to me according to your word.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2022 Theme of the Retreat
\n\u2022 The theme of this retreat is a very practical and fundamental one, \u201cPrayer.\u201d
\n\u2022 There are all types of notions about what prayer is and what prayer is for.
\n\u2022 St. Therese: For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.
\n\u2022 St. John Damascene: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”
\n\u2022 Some have called it a conversation, a dialogue with God.
\n\u2022 Some have called it an abiding in the presence of God.
\n\u2022 The reason why there are different definitions is partly because there are different methods of prayer with slightly different emphases: meditation, vocal prayer, contemplation, liturgical prayer, etc.
\n\u2022 When it comes right down to it, what unites them all, is that prayer is a conversation, a dialogue, a communion for the sake of uniting ourselves in love with Him and with his will.
\n\u2022 It\u2019s a two-way street, in which we first say to the Lord, \u201cSpeak, Lord, for your servant is listening,\u201d and then secondly make our wishes known to him.
\n\u2022 But there\u2019s a purpose to it, so that we might become united with him, one with him, more and more in his image and likeness, by uniting our will with His divine, saving will.
\n\u2022 It\u2019s, therefore, more than a monologue directed toward the Lord.
\n\u2022 It\u2019s more than just \u201cshooting the breeze\u201d with Him, or, as some people have said, \u201cwasting time with God.\u201d
\n\u2022 It\u2019s a loving communion with Him, in which we seek Him, find him, love Him, and try to become more and more like Him who is holy.
\n\u2022 This retreat on prayer will have three dimensions to it.
\n\u2022 The first dimension will be about the breadth of prayer. We\u2019ll open up our hearts to the various ways we\u2019re called to pray, to the various ways that we seek, find, love and are made to become one with God.
\n\u2022 Sometimes we can pray only in one way, whereas God calls us to pray always, in everything we do. So over the course of this retreat, we\u2019ll talk about
\n\u2022 vocal prayer,
\n\u2022 the Our Father,
\n\u2022 the Rosary,
\n\u2022 the Mass,
\n\u2022 meditative prayer,
\n\u2022 contemplative prayer,
\n\u2022 the prayer of the \u201cToday of God,\u201d
\n\u2022 aspirations,
\nas well as the various forms of prayer:
\n\u2022 praising God
\n\u2022 thanking Him,
\n\u2022 adoring Him,
\n\u2022 petitioning Him for things for us and for others
\n\u2022 begging him to forgive our sins.
\n\u2022 This is the first dimension, the breadth of prayer.
\n\u2022 The second dimension is the depth of prayer.
\n\u2022 In each of these areas, we hope to try to allow the Lord to take all of us more deeply into the spirit of this prayer, so that it might help us better to encounter the living Lord there.
\n\u2022 So we\u2019ll focus on how each type of prayer is meant to bring us into the depth of the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to help us grow as children of God, chips off the old divine block.
\n\u2022 The third dimension is the most important. It\u2019s our response to the first two.
\n\u2022 We\u2019ll learn alot about the various types of prayer.
\n\u2022 We\u2019ll learn much more about how to allow the Lord to let those types of prayer become more efficacious in our own life.
\n\u2022 But the third dimension is our response. We need to put what we learn into practice, starting right here during this retreat.
\n\u2022 It\u2019s like what is said about learning how to swim. We can read all the books we want, consult all the experts \u2014 and that\u2019s good and helpful \u2014 but ultimately, we have to dive into the water, to allow the Lord to teach us from within.
\n\u2022 This third dimension, our application of what the Lord is going to try to teach us this weekend, is what will change our lives.
\n\u2022 This brings up the soil on the basis of which this third dimension is called to grow.
\n\u2022 Parable of the seed and the sower (cf Luke 8:5 ff).
\n\u2022 Seed is perfect. It\u2019s word of God.
\n\u2022 The sower is a tag-team effort; it will be done in tandem. The most important partner is the Holy Spirit. He\u2019s the best there is. His instrument for the sowing is a problem \u2014 he\u2019s speaking to you! \u2014 but he promises you to do the best he can with such a treasure.
\n\u2022 What you\u2019re called to be aware of and till, with the help of the same Holy Spirit, is your soil, the receptivity of your soul. Jesus describes four types of soil in the parable.
\n\u2022 That along the path, hardened in its ways. Devil takes away the seed before it plants deeply.
\n\u2022 Rocky soil, very superficial, not deep. Grows up fast, but dies because of lack of roots.
\n\u2022 Soil among thorns, which choke the seed. Thorns are described not as sins (which would choke the seed), but pleasures of life and cares of this world. Good things in themselves, which take away our attention from the most important thing. We need to try to allow the Divine Gardener to take out those thorns and weeds during this time.
\n\u2022 Good soil, which is deep, and bears fruit, fruit in acts of love. This allows the seed to grow, and continue growing from a seed into a tree, in which the birds of the air, in which others, can find shade and rest. The good soil will bear fruit, will thrive in the third dimension.
\n\u2022 So I would strongly encourage you, after each conference or Mass, to go over with the Lord, moved and assisted by the Holy Spirit, what we\u2019ve discussed, to ask him to help those seeds fall on good soil, to be planted deeply, so that you might bear fruit, 30, 60, or 100-fold.
\n\u2022 If you\u2019d like to follow up on anything that I\u2019m saying during this retreat, I\u2019m basing these conferences for the most part, on the fourth section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a beautiful section on prayer. I\u2019d also be very willing, if people would be interested, to give you copies of my notes for these talks. They are also being taped. So please don\u2019t feel you need to take notes here, lest you \u201close\u201d the idea. The most important thing for you to do is, as I said above, to listen to what the Lord is saying to you and to respond!<\/p>\n
Practical considerations
\n\u2022 My availability and schedule.
\n\u2022 You all should have a schedule, which gives the whole program.
\n\u2022 There are almost 6.5 hours of confessional opportunities, to come to encounter Jesus in that great sacrament he made for us.
\n\u2022 If you haven\u2019t been to confession in a while, please do not be afraid.
\n\u2022 I\u2019ve prepared a sheet to help you examine your conscience well and feel confident about what you are to do in the confessional.
\n\u2022 But, if you\u2019re nervous, please just say to me, \u201cFather, it\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve been to confession. Could you help me?\u201d I\u2019d be glad to do so.
\n\u2022 I would ask you to try to make your confession soon during the retreat, to allow the divine gardener to give you a fresh beginning, to till your soil, so that the Good Shepherd can take your sins away and plant his seeds of grace.
\n\u2022 I would also ask you to come toward the beginning of a confessional time, rather than toward the end. This allows me to gauge a little bit more easily how quickly I would need to go, if there are many penitents, but also to know if there are no other penitents that time, which would allow me to steal some time praying myself in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
\n\u2022 Sleep
\n\u2022 Need to be rested.
\n\u2022 Temptation for some might be to pray all night, but you\u2019ll be a zombie tomorrow, and when Jesus wants you to be alert for him, you\u2019ll be like Peter, James and John, who slept during the Transfiguration and then later during the Agony of the Garden. Get enough sleep so that you can be alert.
\n\u2022 Spirit of silence
\n\u2022 Most important person to be listening to is Jesus. Most of the time he\u2019ll whisper. Need to be quiet to hear him. Make room for that silence. Keep that conversation going, between conferences, between events.
\n\u2022 Be conscious, too, that Jesus wants to have a conversation with those around you. You might want to talk so badly you want to scream (!), but please be respectful both of Jesus and of those around you, and don\u2019t bud in on his conversations with others just because of a desire to talk. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, but what I\u2019m asking is that you make an effort to make that quiet time, to visit Jesus in the interior castle He wants to build within you. Just keep your eyes on the goal, which is this encounter with the living Lord!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fr. Roger J. Landry Retreat given at Sacred Heart Retreat House Alhambra, California \u201cEncountering Jesus\u201d November 15-17, 2002 John 12:20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, \u201cSir, we wish to see Jesus.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[495],"tags":[464,497,498,8705,496],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retreat","tag-2002-year-b","tag-encountering-jesus-retreat","tag-jn-1220-23","tag-retreat","tag-sacred-heart-retreat-house-alhambra-california"],"yoast_head":"\n