WELCOME to this year’s online Holy Week Retreat:
“Washing Feet & Cleansing Temples.”
We are now on our 7th year this year.
If you’ve joined us before,
you will recall that you can do this retreat
anytime during the day and at any pace you choose.
But it’s important that you take your time:
Don’t speed-read and race through the text.
And resist that temptation
to scroll down the page as fast as you can!
It’s God’s time with you.
Make sure He gets some quality time, for a change.
It’s also your time for yourself.
Do not shortchange yourself.
Before you begin,
remember:
This retreat–
this meeting between you and God–
needs two things:
First, it needs your effort.
An encounter with God will happen
only if we find the time and create the space for it.
So try to free yourself
from chores and distractions for 30 minutes or so.
Second, this retreat needs God’s grace.
Our efforts are necessary
but they are not enough.
It is God who decides how and when He will meet us
and respond to us during this retreat.
He will decide whether He wants us
to have a felt encounter with him,
or a deeper understanding about ourselves and our lives,
or a secret, quiet gift
that we will get to unwrap only later on.
We can compare prayer to flying a kite.
We have to work, to run and toss the kite, for it to fly.
But for it to take flight,
the kite also needs the wind to blow.
In the same way, when we pray,
we need to “work” by quieting ourselves
and trying our best to converse with God.
But ultimately, it is God who sends the wind
that makes prayers soar.
However, even if God sends the wind,
if we are not working on our prayer,
our prayer will never take flight.
Prayer, like flying a kite, requires effort.
Are you ready for some kite-flying?
Click here for Day 1 (Holy Thursday) of our online retreat.