6. Retreat: A Spring Cleaning for Our Soul

In Episode 6 of the Veil + Armour podcast, Sheila shares some insights she had gained from attending a recent silent retreat for women. She debunks her top three excuses for the necessity of an annual retreat: no time, no money, no need for it.

Sheila also shares a talk by her friend, Ina, during the retreat. A mother of six, Ina shared her reflection on Jesus' Parable of Salt and Light, and how we are being called to share the salt of our example, to share the flavour of the Gospel, through our words and in the example of our daily life. This doesn't mean, however, that we are perfect all the time. Ina shares that our imperfections can also draw people to our witness, to make us more relatable. Ina encouraged the women at the retreat to deepen their relationship with God, by knowing Him through Scripture, by reaching out to Our Blessed Mother through praying the Holy Rosary, and to seeking the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Sheila also discusses the link between a spiritual retreat and a spring cleaning of our souls. The season of spring is a season of renewal, just like a retreat can be a time of prayer, reflection and contemplation, which can lead to a renewal of faith, a rejuvenation of our soul, and a new perspective on our life's purpose.

There is also a discussion on cherry blossoms, which are in peak season in early Spring and a brief look at a book about faith and conversion  in Japan through the experience of Opus Dei. Finally, Sheila links the theme of the book, "Holiness for Housewives and Other Working Women" to the theme of retreats, her friend, Ina's talk, cherry blossom season, and the book, "When the Cherry Trees Blossomed: The Expansion of Opus Dei in Japan." The overall theme has been an invitation and a call to develop a closer relationship with God, and to take steps towards experiencing a springtime of faith and spiritual renewal.

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Transcript

 Are you a Catholic mom who loves stories of courage and overcoming adversity?  Are you a mom looking for ideas and inspiration on how to raise the next generation of leaders and saints? Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay at home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady.

I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate, and enrich the lives of Catholic women to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints. Please join us every week on the Veil in Armour podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.  

 Welcome to Episode 6 of the Veil and Armour podcast.

I will talk about the recent retreat that I went on during the second, last week of April. Let's start off this podcast with a prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit, Amen. 

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Jesus. Holy Mary. Mother of God. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit.  Amen. 

I went on a silent retreat for women, the commuters' edition. It was held at Kintore College, a cultural centre and a university residence for female students.

It's located near the downtown campus of the University of Toronto, my former alma mater. It was like coming home to a familiar place since this was where I came out of retirement. So to speak after not writing frequently for a newspaper since I voluntarily left my career in journalism twelve years ago. 

The doctor at that time had counseled me that due to my high risk pregnancy and my previous miscarriage that it would be prudent to take a break and to not have as much stress as my former career would have required me to work under those circumstances. It was at Kintore where I first met Canadian podcaster speaker and cancer survivor, Tammy Peterson.

 It turned out to be her 1st interview with a media outlet about her intention to become a Catholic, which happened this past Easter. I still give thanks to God for Mrs. Peterson's story and how it was received afterwards. It essentially went viral as they say, got picked up by many publications and across the social media world.

Many people were sharing the story. This was how I knew the story gained a little bit of attention inside a priest friend was in Madrid, Spain, and he sent me a message saying that somebody had emailed it to him. Thanks be to God. And that story was published in The Catholic Register newspaper in Toronto. 

Let's go back to the retreat. What did I learn from three days of a retreat where I, along with 22 other women, arrived at 9 a. m. every day and left at 5 p. m. for two days. And the final, the third day, there was a shortened day, starting off with meditation, Sunday Mass, a talk, And then it ended with a meditation and then a get together and a goodbye lunch at that retreat.

It kind of hit home with me again that: A retreat is an essential part of our spiritual life. It's like a spring cleaning for our soul, if you will. Given that it is spring, it's springtime; signifying a new beginning. Now, I am a big procrastinator for retreats. My husband keeps on reminding me, "You should go on a retreat, let's make it happen." And I just keep saying, you know, my main three rebuttals, I guess, or objections: Number one, the big one. I have no time. I'm busy. Everyone's busy. Who has time? To take a break. Number two: it costs money.  That's a big thing, especially for a family now that costs are up costs of gas, food, especially owning a home.

I mean, we live,  unfortunately, we live near an encampment. Where people and that's the unfortunate part is that people have no home and they have to live in the park, in a tent. That's probably not secure.  It's not really shielded very well from the elements if it's raining very hard, or if it's very cold, snowing hail, and also the insecurity  of living in an encampment where you're surrounded,  by people, but there's no  external security to guard you.

The third objection that I usually have is I don't need it. I don't why do I need that? I don't need to take a break. But during the retreat, I learned three rebuttals to  these top three excuses that I always use every year. 

Number one: I have time to go on social media. I have time to scroll to watch certain YouTube videos, to pass time, so I do have time for some things. It's really just a matter of prioritizing them. We all don't have time in the grand scheme of things. However, we can make time for what's essential,

Now, speaking of my Number Two excuse of cost and money.  

Money is a precious commodity. In general,  especially if you have a family, it is very precious. So, our retreat is an investment in our spiritual life, just like a car needs gas or energy to run. So, to do our souls, ideally, a Catholic retreat will nourish your soul through lots of time with our Lord in prayer.

During Holy mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, spiritual direction, and preferably in silence, since this is how we will hear God speak to us in the silence of our hearts; instead of allowing our thoughts, our anxieties, our fears to overwhelm our mind, and to overwhelm our prayer.  We need to be silent to allow God to speak to us 

My number three rebuttal to my own excuses of not needing a retreat is that we all need rest and rejuvenation and a spring cleaning for our souls. 

So, a yearly retreat can help us begin again, as the priest had said at the final meditation. This is not the end. We are all going home to your own respective houses and workplaces, but it doesn't mean this is the end of your spiritual journey. It's just the beginning, and you can take the fruits of what you learned here and apply it in your daily life.

I go back to what, my friend had said in her talk. Her name is Ina, she has six kids, and the theme of her talk was being salt and light. We have to show others the salt of our example, of each of us being the salt of the earth, meaning being a witness, to be attractive to other people, and giving off the flavors of the gospel, of being a good witness.

Now she gave examples. How do we do this? Being charitable, being truthful, being forgetting ourselves, forgiving past offenses and saying no to temptation. And she emphasized, even with our imperfections, our mistakes, that shouldn't stop us from being better. And she recalled what the priest had said in the meditation.

We see the saints as an example. The church is not a museum for saints. And this is the  oft repeated phrase, the church is It's not a museum for saints. It's a hospital for sinners. And as Ina was saying in the talk, our imperfections can actually make us become more like salt. Be more attractive, be more relatable.

And with the salt and light, we speak of the light, of the good news, of the doctrine. To others, we transmit light and the teachings of Christ with people we meet, we deal with every day in our workplace, in our homes, in our families. And that doesn't mean we have to say it out loud with words all the time.

A lot of the times, it is really through our witness. How can we be the light of the /world? We can't give light if we don't know our Lord.  We have to be close to our Lord. And so she recommended, and also the priest recommended, reading Scripture. This is how we will know the word of God. And we will know and learn from Jesus example, an example of his apostles.

We have many holy men and women in the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament, we see how they have  fallen into temptation, into sin, and how, through God's grace, they sought repentance and turned that around to live in peace. Within the light of Christ, and the last thing that my friend had recommended was  praying to our lady, pray the Rosary, our Blessed Mother knows Jesus best and by knowing about her, we will also know about him. And finally, she recommended we pray to the Holy Spirit. These are some of the fruits that I received from the retreat.

I thank Eva, the director of Kinter College for running a wonderful retreat and for inviting me, and also for Queenie for inviting me to the retreat. It was really what I needed. Now I invite you to inquire within your parish if they have any retreats running. Perhaps there might be a retreat centre near you. Perhaps there might be an online retreat. It's really worth the time and the investment  to invest in your spiritual life, and to help you to become closer to God.

The spring cleaning of our soul lends itself to the next topic which is cherry blossoms because it's related to  the spring that is here now the springtime of faith of renewal, and this is the peak time for cherry blossoms. 

And if you don't know cherry blossoms, they have this beautiful, soft pink color, 
They're just beautiful to look at. Perhaps to a child it might look like pink bubblegum hanging daintily on a tree. Cherry blossoms are a sign of spring, a new beginning, the beginning of life, and it's the same in our spiritual life.

 When I was at the retreat, I actually saw a book with cherry blossoms on it.  It was called, "When the Cherry Trees Blossomed, the expansion of Opus Dei in Japan."

There was a beautiful story of a family who was not Catholic,  but ended up converting to Catholicism through the witness of the Catholics whom they met.

And there was one story; Unfortunately, the mother was battling cancer and she had been visited by her friends and two of them were Catholic, two Catholic women,  and I believe it was her son  who was there with her and I was asking what what is that picture? And she said, oh, that is Our Lady and Jesus,  but I don't know much about them.

And  the son had asked where she got it from. And the two Catholic friends had given her this beautiful image. And so it was, as I was saying before, sometimes it's really just the presence. That is a way for us to bring the light of Christ to others; being there for the person during their darkest, most challenging times.

Sometimes that is just how we can be Christ to others. And they brought Our Lady as well. They introduced the motherly love and affection of Our Lady, and that is just such a beautiful story in that book. I encourage you to read it. If you have time,  and I just,  wanted to conclude briefly,  because I did say that I would talk about, this book called, "Holiness for Housewives and Other Working Women." 

Another good book for, for spiritual reading. If you're looking for one. Basically, the message is that the path to holiness, and this is also the message of the path of holiness is through our vocation, whatever that is. And for my case, for other stay at home moms, it is through doing the dirty dishes,  changing the dirty diapers, cooking dinner, cooking the meals.

You do not need to find an adventurous vocation to reach heaven. You can reach heaven. Through where you are, and I think that's a common theme of the retreat. My friends talk the cherry blossoms, even and the book that I just mentioned is that we don't have to travel anywhere because Jesus  resides in us, especially when we receive the Eucharist.

We are home with Jesus. And when we pray the rosary, we are home with Our Lady, our Blessed Mother. Our path to heaven, our path to holiness for myself, for my vocation my path to heaven is through my husband and I look forward to the day when I can be reunited with two of my children whom we lost to miscarriage.

 May we be reunited in heaven one day, God willing.

 Thank you for listening and have a blessed week. Thank you. 

Come with a cup of your favorite beverage and listen to Veil in Armour. Where we explore the sacred bond of marriage and our unique vocation as wives, mothers, and God fearing women. Please click the follow or subscribe button and stay tuned for upcoming episodes. Let's be brave. Let's be bold. And be blessed together.