Staff Retreat 2006

Last Sunday (12 Feb), we ended our week of silent retreat. It was a very fruitful and graced time for us.

On both our personal level and as a community, this retreat was essentially a call to return to the awareness of our deepest desires and pursuing what gives us passion and life.

I was impressed by what our retreat spiritual director (Father Richard, a Jesuit) said about the secret behind the dramatic jump in the number of Jesuits from the time St Ignatius first started the Society of Jesus (9 men) to when he died (over a thousand sent worldwide with Saint Francis Xavier looking to evangelise China). The secret was that they knew what they deeply desired and that gave them the passion and zeal to "set the world ablaze!" for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of souls.

After 5 days of personal silent retreat, we came together as a community to pray and share about what each of us saw as the apostolic work God desires us in the New Zealand centre to undertake beginning in this year. Over 2 days, we witnessed how the Holy Spirit moved among us and united us as thoughts and opinions were expressed honestly, listened to respectfully and discerned prayerfully. These ultimately gained a coherence which everyone agreed to proceed with. Focus will be on prayer and liturgical outreaches at St Gerard's, making it a spiritual Lighthouse, a House of Prayer, a place of vibrant Catholic worship and on deeper faith formation for parishes and for the young in primary schools. This was the first time we have done this Ignatian discernment exercise together as a community and the fruit of it filled us with renewed hope and joy as we continue to seek to do God's will.