36. Creating a Sacred Space at Home, building a home altar and what is a spiritual retreat? Plus a Prayer for Pope Francis and the Conclave

Thanks be to God! Our warmest thanks to each and every one of you! 

Happy Podcast Anniversary!

As we mark one year of the Veil and Armour podcast, this episode invites you into a personal family conversation about creating spiritual retreats within the rhythm of daily life. Recorded during Holy Week but relevant year-round, we explore how the concept of "retreat" can transform our homes into sanctuaries of prayer and peace.

Drawing from a recent retreat experience, we unpack the Biblical foundations for spiritual withdrawal and renewal. Just as the Prophet Elijah received heavenly nourishment in the wilderness that sustained him for 40 days, we too, need spiritual food for our journey. The conversation shares practical ways to create sacred spaces at home – from establishing a simple home altar with a crucifix and candle, to carving out moments for family prayer and Scripture reading.

My children's questions about retreat life lead to deeper reflections on prayer as relationship. "Prayer is a conversation with God," we discover, "and heaven itself is a relationship." This perspective transforms our understanding of spiritual disciplines from obligation to life-giving connection. Like a muscle that strengthens with exercise, our prayer life grows more robust with consistent practice.

The episode takes on unexpected poignancy as we discuss Pope Francis's final Easter appearance and his death on Easter Monday. His example of carrying suffering with dignity while still ministering to others becomes a powerful illustration of the Easter message – that our sufferings united with Christ's passion lead ultimately to the joy of His Resurrection.

Whether you're seeking to deepen your family's faith practices or looking for simple ways to create moments of spiritual connection amid busy days, this anniversary episode offers gentle guidance and encouragement. Join us as we celebrate a year of stories and continue our journey together, supporting one another through prayer and shared experience in the seasons ahead.

This episode was recorded in two parts, the first being on April 15, and the second part on May 2nd. There was a technical glitch to the April 15 recording which required a May 2nd updated ending. 

Thank you for your understanding + God bless! 

Please join me and my family for the free 7-day online prayer retreat with the Hozana App for Mother's Day on. May 11, please register here:

https://hozana.org/community/12511-veil-armour-our-lady-s-prayer-warriors 

You can also download the Hozana App. This is not an ad! I wrote this on a voluntary basis because I believe it's important to unite women in prayer! Let's uplift each other through the power of God and the power of prayer! 

Thank you very much once again for being on this journey of faith discussions and podcasting with us! May God continue to bless you and your families!

We hope you will join us online for the Mother's Day Retreat with the Hozana Prayer App!

Chapters

• 0:01 Easter Greetings and Happy Podcast Anniversary!
• 5:39 Conversation With Children About Retreat
• 10:13 Purpose of Spiritual Retreats
• 16:22 Prayer as Relationship with God
• 20:06 Creating a Home Altar and a Sacred Space to Pray and Retreat with God in our homes
• 25:46 Remembering Pope Francis and Easter Message
• 28:44 Invitation to Mother's Day Prayer Retreat

Transcript

Sheila Nonato: 0:01

Happy Easter, Sisters in Christ, to you and your families. My family and I thank each and every one of you for helping us to get to one year of podcasting. It's all thanks be to God, thanks to you! Thank you for all the guests who said yes to share their inspiring story!

Sheila Nonato: 0:19

This week it's a conversation with my children and unfortunately, it's a little bit late because we didn't discuss Holy Week but Easter and all of the habits that we have developed during Lent. We can definitely continue past Holy Week and Easter to bring that peace and that joy of Christ in our homes every day. During the chat with my children, we talked about the retreat. I went on and it's really very practical to go on retreat because it helps you to rejuvenate your spirit and your soul. It's very good for your soul and for your body as well and for your mind to retreat from the world, and you can adopt these practices, this mentality of retreating with the lord, resting in the lord, and we're going to discuss that today and please join me in a prayer for pope francis and the repose of his soul and for the cardinals who will choose the next pope, in the name of the father and the repose of his soul and for the cardinals who will choose the next pope.

Sheila Nonato: 1:27

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen, Heavenly Father, we pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis. May he meet his Heavenly reward in the embrace of Our Lady and in your Holy presence. We pray for the cardinals who will be selecting the new pope. May the Holy Spirit guide them in choosing the next leader of your Holy Catholic Church. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast.

Sheila Nonato: 2:03

This is your host, Sheila Nonato

Special Guest Co-Host: 2:27

where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato: 2:31

Hello and Welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast, and I'm joined by my children, who are an integral part of the podcast, and my husband's not here, but he is also, and so is my other daughter. Let's start with a prayer.

Special Guest Co-Host: 2:45

In the name of the Father and of the, the Holy Spirit, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed art thou amongst women blessed is the fruit of

Sheila Nonato: 2:53

of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now that you are for death, Amen. In the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. He made a computer. He made a computer. Did you want to sing a song?

Special Guest Co-Host: 3:07

Happy birthday Mom's podcast. Happy birthday, mom's podcast. Happy birthday to Mom's podcast. Happy birthday to Mom's podcast. Happy birthday to Mom's podcast. Happy birthday to Mom's Podcast.

Sheila Nonato: 3:27

Thank you very much and, yes, you're right Around this time. Easter time is when we started the podcast, the podcast Apostolate, and we are very grateful for all of the listeners and all of the guests who have come and shared their powerful story of faith and your tips on how to achieve holiness in your daily life. So, in terms of holiness, we are going to look at Holy Week and it's not too late. If you, like me, have been a little bit lax on our Holy Week aspirations in terms of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. So we're going to talk about retreat and how that will apply to holy week and, in particular, the triduum, which is okay, hold on. Holy thursday, good friday and easter vigil, no Saturday Okay, hold on. And then we have Easter.

Sheila Nonato: 4:26

So Raphael is going to ask me about the. So let's listen to about the retreat. Okay, let's listen to. About the retreat. Okay, you want to ask me something. Who was the leader at the retreat, the retreat? Her name was Miss Innes. You have your book of questions. Who is there? It's a group of women. I forget how many, is it, maybe 50 or so women, or 51, I'm not sure. But yeah, let's listen. Okay, women, mothers, mostly mothers who need time to recharge and it's because, okay, let's listen, james, and what was your question the other day?

Special Guest Co-Host: 5:11

How can you be a good mom when you're tired?

Sheila Nonato: 5:15

Well, sometimes being tired just means you need more rest. You may need to take a break, and sometimes moms and dads need to go on a retreat to recharge themselves physically and spiritually. So that's what I did for three days. And who else do we know went on a retreat? In the Bible, jesus, for example. What did he do?

Special Guest Co-Host: 5:42

He fasted on bread and water for 40 days. Okay, and why did he do that? Sorry, why did he do? He fasted on bread and water for 40 days.

Sheila Nonato: 5:46

And why did he do that? Sorry, why did he do that? I don't really know. Well, he was going to prepare himself because he knew it was coming the passion. He knew that he was going to be enduring suffering and he needed to have that spiritual food in order to carry that cross for us.

Special Guest Co-Host: 6:13

Wow.

Sheila Nonato: 6:14

Okay, James, can you please listen?

Special Guest Co-Host: 6:16

I'm listening, wow, yeah, on to the next question. Okay, yeah, okay. Did you make any friends there?

Sheila Nonato: 6:23

Yeah, so it was a silent retreat, so you were supposed to keep silence, like James. No silence, right, keep silence. So whenever you were eating, we would listen to a podcast about faith and then we would be praying a lot, so praying throughout the whole day, and then listening to meditation by the priest or by the retreat leader and then, like I said, during meals we would be in silence. So at the end of the retreat, when james at the end of the retreat.

Sheila Nonato: 6:57

that's when we could talk, so. And I actually met somebody who was at our wedding, a family friend of your dad, and I reconnected with her and it was nice to meet her. And I also met somebody from Buffalo, new York, who is friends with a couple of old friends from Buffalo also that we haven't seen in more than 10 years, so it was nice to to meet her cool so I know james is very excited.

Sheila Nonato: 7:32

That's why he's uh, you can hear him talking and excitedly showing how, uh, how, um happy he is to be on the podcast. Okay, so what's your next question? What did you eat there at the retreat? Yeah, just, you know, fish. Fish on Fridays because it's Lent. And what else did we Actually? No, it was before Lent, but Fish Fridays is traditionally what Catholics do, christians do yeah, just nourishing food.

Sheila Nonato: 8:04

And what was great about it is moms take a break from the cooking and the washing so we can concentrate more on prayer. So we, we pray throughout the whole day. We go, we get up meditation at 8 a. m., mass I think it is 8: 30 or 8:45a. m. And then we have breakfast and then we hear a talk and then another meditation Time for confession Time outside. In the afternoon you can rest, you can read, and then we go to dinner. Actually, no, there's Benediction, Adoration, Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. So you spend a lot of time with our Lord, and then dinner and then another meditation and then a little bit of a snack before bedtime. But you don't have to go to that one. If you don't want to, then you just go to sleep and then you do it again.

Special Guest Co-Host: 9:01

Did you eat anything special there?

Sheila Nonato: 9:05

Anything special. Well, it was actually my birthday the second day of the retreat, so I went to an ice cream shop, a cafe ice cream shop. I had maple syrup, yeah, but the listeners might not know. So ice cream, maple syrup, maple ice cream, maple walnut, I think ice cream. It was very delicious, but I wish I could have shared it with you and it was a very big cup, so I wish I could have shared it with you. But anyway, it was my birthday, so I decided to treat myself. And what else? What was the purpose for going there? purpose of retreat? Um, well, for people, many different reasons, but sometimes it's just to rest and to actually. That's a good question. So I that's why I have my bible here. Uh, so one of the meditations that the priest preached Father Charles Nahm was the priest who was at the retreat, so he actually read talked about Elijah.

Special Guest Co-Host: 10:18

I want to eat. Something to eat.

Sheila Nonato: 10:20

Okay, Elijah. And after Elijah defeated the prophets, okay, Elijah. And after Elijah defeated the prophets, the false prophets of Baal and Jezebel wanted to, I guess, go after him because of what he had done. Elijah fled and then he felt really tired and exhausted. So I'm going to read it.

Sheila Nonato: 10:42

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. He felt really tired and exhausted, so I'm going to read it. And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones in a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you. And he arose and ate and drank and walked in the strength of the food, the strength of that food, 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. So the mountain of God. And so then he went to the cave and he was going to continue on his mission of becoming a prophet for God, but he needed that spiritual food. So the spiritual food. What other spiritual food can we have on the journey of faith?

Sheila Nonato: 11:50

um the Eucharist and in the in Jesus's Blood yeah, so they the wine, Precious, the Precious Blood of Jesus, and that the wine transforms through, and the eucharist, the, the Bread of Life, Jesus, is transformed through transubstantiation. I think that's a big word, we could talk about it another time, but that's when the bread and the wine become Jesus through the power of God in the Mass, during the Mass. Okay, now what else?

Special Guest Co-Host: 12:25

What did you do there at the retreat?

Sheila Nonato: 12:29

Yeah, really a lot of prayer, prayer journaling, um, yeah, so any. So that was the reason I read that passage is because we need spiritual food, right, we. We need physical food, like the bread, but in the bible it says man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God so look at Jesus when he didn't even eat anything, but he was still able to be sustained for those 40 days by the word of God. Okay, so what else do we have here?

Special Guest Co-Host: 13:05

was it hard at the retreat to do all that hard and intense prayer.

Sheila Nonato: 13:12

Yeah, it was hard if you're out of shape in prayer, which is what I was. So prayer is also a muscle, like a spiritual muscle. If you don't exercise it then it's going to be hard. But it was also good that there was time to rest. But it was also good that there was time to rest.

Sheila Nonato: 13:28

But really, you can take that intense prayer, that intense time of prayer, and how do you apply it to daily life so you can pray? You can pray during the day, throughout the day and the evening, so you start off the day with prayer so that you can offer your day to God. So in the Bible, in exodus and old testament, um, the offering, the sacrifice, is very important. So that concept of sacrifice and as we see jesus on the cross, that is the ultimate sacrifice. So we can sacrifice many things in our day our little inconveniences, our little challenges. So we can. You know, for moms, they can pray, offer up when they're cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry, changing diapers, feeding the baby, cooking meals. But it's very important to start the day with prayer, to talk to God, because God is the most important, the first commandment. You shall not have any other gods before me. You have to keep out all the distractions, and people can make all kinds of golden caps out of things, for instance, money or things related to their job, or material things, so we can focus on God and then we end the day speaking to our Lord. Because, oh yes, I remember now. During the retreat, the priest also mentioned that prayer is a conversation with God.

Sheila Nonato: 15:02

Right, and it's a relationship. So heaven is a relationship. It is not. God is not. So Jesus came to fulfill the law. The Old Testament has the Ten Commandments, and then Jesus came to fulfill the law, the Ten Commandments, and then the two most important commandments. Do you remember?

Special Guest Co-Host: 15:27

You should love your neighbour as yourself what's the first one?

Sheila Nonato: 15:33

that was a point love, God is love.

Sheila Nonato: 15:35

God with all your heart, all their soul and all your might. So in that sense, God wants to converse with us and He loves us very much, so He wants us to be in that relationship. So how do we be in a relationship or a friendship? If you're in a friendship, if you don't talk to your friend right, then you might stop being friends right, and then you won't know your friends. So that's why we know Jesus, reading the Bible and praying, and we become. You know how you're training, like an athlete, if you want to be good at something, you have to train. So if you want to run 5 kilometers or 10 kilometers or longer, you have to train little by little every day. It's just like that prayer. You keep on doing little every day. It's just like that prayer. You keep on doing it every day and then you can become better at it, meaning your communion with God will be more intense. You know how communion, or the Holy Communion Well, there's also the communion with God in prayer. So do you have anything else?

Special Guest Co-Host: 16:48

One more question when was the retreat?

Sheila Nonato: 16:50

The retreat was in a place called Cedarc rest Retreat Centre and it was in the city but outside the city, so there was a lot of green space and it was very cold you told me about Cedarc rest.

Sheila Nonato: 17:06

That's right. So it's very cold but it's also not too far from. You know, like I said, I went out for ice cream because it was during my birthday and I snuck out to on the Saturday and actually it was. It was also a very somber day because I got a message and I was looking at that the Pope was not doing well.

Sheila Nonato: 17:27

The Holy Father. So we should offer a prayer for the Holy Father, think of him during this Holy Week that he may continue to improve. God will protect him. And we know that during this Holy Week we are looking at Christ's suffering and we look into the Holy Father and pray for him because his health, you know, it's not easy. It's not been easy for him, it's been challenging, and so we can also look at our own challenges in life and we can pray for others who are also suffering.

Sheila Nonato: 18:02

But we know that the suffering has, you know, redemptive suffering. The suffering suffering has a purpose. Like Jesus suffered on the cross and he resurrected because he redeemed us, because Adam and Eve, our first parents, after the fall in the garden when they disobeyed God, god closed the gates of heaven, but God promised that there will be a Messiah coming through the proto-evangelium, which is when he said that a woman will come and crush your head right to the serpent, and that woman was Mother Mary. So we, the New Testament, was going to fulfill the old through Jesus and also the cooperation of Our Lady but he also said that you will fight her offspring's heel right, yes, yes.

Sheila Nonato: 18:52

So she will defeat the serpent, the enemy, because of what he had done but what's the?

Special Guest Co-Host: 19:02

what does it mean by biting?

Sheila Nonato: 19:05

well, just to crush the head of the serpent, just like in the painting biting and hurting. Well, just to crush the head of the serpent, just like in the painting Heal. Yeah. Well, I think that just means that good will prevail. God will prevail. Although on earth we suffer, god allows the suffering. But there is not just this life, there is the next life, and in the next life, when we get to heaven, we will suffer no more.

Special Guest Co-Host: 19:30

But why didn he crush the head of the serpent?

Sheila Nonato: 19:33

Yeah, because the serpent deceived us, deceived Adam and Eve, so that we might not have gotten to Heaven, because God closed the gates. But the Messiah came and opened it for us when he offered himself the ultimate sacrifice to redeem our sins.

Special Guest Co-Host: 19:53

Okay, that's all my questions, that's all your questions, okay.

Sheila Nonato: 19:56

Well, what can we do for Holy Week today and how can we bring the retreat, the spirit of retreat? Well, first of all, we could have you know how do you retreat from the modern world? Maybe you can have a home altar, maybe we can show our home altar. You know, one of the things it has is a crucifix. Another thing it has is a candle to remind us of the light of Christ, and that candle is actually from our wedding, daddy and my wedding, our wedding from 14 and a half years ago wedding, um our wedding from 14 and a half years ago and it has two weddings.

Sheila Nonato: 20:36

Um, I mean, two candles on either. Yeah, so you only need one, or how many if you don't even need it, if you don't want it, because you know candles are dangerous, but we actually don't like that, we just leave it there. There's also a statue of Our Lady of terTorreciudad, which Daddy had carried before he met me, long before he met me when he walked the Camino. So he had it in his backpack and it was going to be a gift for his future wife. It's cool. So we have that there. Our Lady is carrying baby Jesus, so they're always together, always, because that is the story of salvation.

Special Guest Co-Host: 21:10

Right now? Do we have it in a safe from somewhere? I don't know.

Sheila Nonato: 21:18

And you can also have a flower. So what my husband was saying was when he was little, his family would buy one rose every Saturday to offer to Our Lady, because Saturday is Our Lady's Saturday and we can also offer a bouquet of roses through the rosary. So this home altar you can have it where everyone can see it and you can sit down and you can also pray together and read the Bible, and it's a time where you can be quiet. If you don't have a space or if you prefer a closet, a prayer closet, you can also just do that. And you don't, maybe you can just put up a picture of Jesus or you don't have to put anything. You can just go in there and retreat. Basically, that's what retreat is. Yeah.

Special Guest Co-Host: 22:07

And we also have a statue of St Joseph holding Jesus.

Sheila Nonato: 22:12

Yeah, you can also have a statue of St Joseph holding Jesus. Yeah, you can also have a statue of St Joseph, but anything else, no, that was my favorite. And you love the Bible, so you love to read the Bible. Right, I love to read the Bible. You know a lot of stories. Do you have a favorite story? Okay, what's your favorite story in the Bible?

Special Guest Co-Host: 22:34

Well, it's really stories. My favourite stories in the Bible are the parables of Jesus.

Sheila Nonato: 22:42

Okay, do you have a favourite parable? My?

Special Guest Co-Host: 22:46

favourite parable is the parable of the sower.

Sheila Nonato: 22:53

Okay, what is that about?

Special Guest Co-Host: 22:55

It's about this person who is doing a harvest and then an enemy comes in the night and plants some weeds that look like the wheat and his servant. When they find out about that, his servants asked him what to do with that. Should we pull out the weeds? And then the master said no, because you might accidentally pull some of the wheat along with the weeds. So the weeds grew with the wheat until they're ready for cutting down. They took all the wheat and then the weeds and they tied the wheat into and put it in the barn. And what they did with the weeds? They tied it up and threw it in the fire.

Sheila Nonato: 23:52

Okay, and what do you think that means?

Special Guest Co-Host: 23:55

the fire, I think. Is it the fire? I think is ", which means hell, in in the barn is heaven okay, okay.

Sheila Nonato: 24:08

So I guess that's a Judgment Day. That's the second coming when God will make judgment, as the name says. But yeah, we can maybe do another episode on that too. But what did you want to say, James? On Holy Week we're going to go to the Easter Vigil. Do you like the candles? Do you like the candles?

Special Guest Co-Host: 24:32

I can say that what is candles? I can say that what is it?

Sheila Nonato: 24:35

I can say it, oh okay, what else are you going to say?

Special Guest Co-Host: 24:39

And also when you go to the Easter vigil, you'll see Jesus.

Sheila Nonato: 24:46

That's right, that's right, you do see Jesus. So every Mass, at every Mass, see Jesus, because the bread becomes the body of Jesus and the blood becomes the wine, becomes the Precious Blood of Jesus. So if you'd like to see Jesus, even outside of Easter, uh, or the Holy Week, you can go to a church and sit there and pray, or you can in front of the Blessed Sacrament, or you can go to Mass, and you can go to Mass every day if you want. So anyway, yeah, I would like to just encourage you.

Special Guest Co-Host: 25:19

And every day you don't see Jesus, but He's there, right.

Sheila Nonato: 25:25

He is there. He is always there, especially in your heart, especially when you are suffering.

Special Guest Co-Host: 25:31

He is there everywhere that's right, He is.

Sheila Nonato: 25:35

You know, when we suffer, Hello Sisters in Christ. Thank you for joining us and I just wanted to apologize because during the recording we had a conversation and unfortunately the recording stopped. So, as you heard, we were talking about suffering and I just wanted to conclude by saying, as we have seen with the Holy Father, he was suffering because of his illness, but he went right until the end. On Easter Sunday, he was greeting fellow Catholics at St. Peter's Square and giving them that hope and sharing that love of Christ and the joy of Christ to others, and people thought there wasn't anything wrong. But he was probably suffering, but through the grace of God. Suffering but through the grace of God, through the strength that he has found in Jesus, in his faith. He mustered the strength and the courage to be with us, to send a message of the resurrection to us, to each and every one of us and to all those who were at St Peter's Square to be able to have seen him. And he brought that lasting joy to show us that He is indeed risen. And it was with great sadness that we all learned on Easter Monday that he had passed away. And some might say how? Why did that happen? Because he was fine and all of a sudden. Why did that happen? Because he was fine and all of a sudden he's home with the Father, and I guess that really encapsulates, summarizes the Easter message is that the dying of self and the sacrifice, the suffering and the sacrifice, united with the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ, for a greater purpose, for a greater purpose, for a greater purpose and out of love, that in the next life we will be with the Father. And the message that the Holy Father was trying to teach us was that after death there is still life, that there is still the resurrection that Jesus had promised. And may we all live in that spirit of the resurrected Lord, that when we do carry our own crosses, may we be able to turn to him and to say that we can also carry our own crosses, no matter how big or how small, because Jesus taught us how to do it and we also saw Pope Francis carry that cross in that living example. And I wish you a blessed week as we continue the Easter season and again, from my family, we offer our sincerest thanks and we will pray for each and every one of you. Please pray for our podcast, apostolate.

Sheila Nonato: 28:40

And on the theme of retreat, I would like to invite you to an online prayer retreat with the Hosanna app, and I will put the link in the show notes. It's a free retreat, it's a Hozana is a free app, a prayer app that connects Catholics from around the world praying the rosary or praying certain novenas or, in this case, it's a retreat for Mother's Day, and I highly encourage you. Please join me and you can do the retreat on your own. I've already written the reflections in the prayers and you can read them or listen to them on your own time. Again, I will link it in the show notes and I hope you do join me. Let's all pray together, let's lift each other up in prayer and let's pray for all the mothers who feel isolated. May we all join a community of prayer, no matter where we are. Thank you again, and God bless! Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour podcast.

Special Guest Co-Host: 29:53

I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel and please spread the word. Let's Be Brave, let's Be Bold and Be Blessed together.