Echoes from the Bell Tower

Advent is a time of preparation that involves making room in one’s heart for the coming of Christ. One way of approaching this discipline is by making a retreat. Here are six powerful reasons to make a retreat:

1. To solve your personal problems. Nothing works as a greater spur to resolving problems than getting away from one’s ordinary environment for a period of time to see and meditate on God’s will, while looking over your own life from a distance. Private, personal desires begin to look very unimportant. God’s will and God’s love gradually appear to be what they really are: the most important goals in the world.
2. To get away from worldly distractions. Because the world around you bombards you constantly about material things, you must get away from it once in a while. Never in history was the world’s voice louder than it is today—in television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, social gatherings, business contacts and advertising. At a retreat, you’re reminded that you can only enjoy the good things of the world if you are living for something bigger than this world—and that is God.
3. To renew your lifetime goals. You constantly need new ideas, more knowledge and deeper convictions about your primary goal in life, and an effective way of attaining them is through making a retreat.
4. To meet people who share your faith. You will meet and mingle with other men and women from various walks of life. Their example will encourage and inspire you.
5. To get some rest and relaxation. You will enjoy making a retreat! It can be a refreshing and relaxing experience.
6. To talk with people who regularly make retreats. Tens of thousands of men and women testify to the incalculable good that has come to them through their retreats. If you have lingering doubts about whether you will get any good out of it, ask friends who make regular retreats.

Saint Meinrad offers a variety of retreats during the year on Scripture, prayer, and other topics at our Guest House and Retreat Center in southern Indiana. Learn more about our retreat program here: https://www.saintmeinrad.org/retreats/