Day #1

This evening at 6:45pm 175 of the seminarians and about 50 spiritual directors from around the country met to officially start the silent retreat. At the session several priests and sisters spoke about the beauty of making a silent retreat and of how God uses them to speak to our hearts. In silence, apart from the distractions of life, we are forced to come face to face with ourselves and with God. In the process we wrestle with the forces in our lives. One of things stressed at the start of the retreat is communicating through prayer to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as Mary. Each day during the retreat we are left in silence and to our own time except for Mass, a spiritual direction meeting and a brief evening conference. Each day we are expected to make four one hour prayer sessions(no more, no less). Each session is paired with a passage of scripture and some direction.

I must say I initially was not excited about the retreat, but after being here for a week I am looking forward to it. I am not sure what will happen, but I have a growing sense that God is trying to reach out to me and speak to me in a real and present way. I am not sure what He will say, or what I am to come to understand. What I do know is that on this first night of the retreat I feel a stirring in my heart. It is a little scary, I won't lie. I am not sure what it is, but it is easy to talk about God and His power. However, when he starts to use it is unsettling because I come to realize who is really in charge.

(each day I will post my thoughts and where I am at, until tomorrow...)