A Healthy Escape

Scurrying around to pack my bags, make sack dinners, and finalize arrangements for the family while I will be gone start to feel like a little taste of hell right before my annual three-day Ignatian Silent Retreat. (I guess it was Satan’s goodbye gift.) I load the kids to take them to my husband at his office. I realize I left the yogurt I was supposed to bring at home, so I have to swing by home again before heading to the convent.

Whew!

My car enters the long drive as I am facing the talk statue of St. Joseph with his arm extended. I check in. My breathing slows down as I put my bags in my room and walk downstairs for a Lenten soup supper. After eight years of fulfilling this Regnum Christi commitment, there are few things that would cause me to miss my annual silent retreat.

I do not feel guilty for the time away from family. I know how much better a person, wife, and mother I am for spending this time with Jesus, recalibrating the direction of my life.

During my 72-hour incubation away from the noise and distraction, I am able to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit. I have never left a silent retreat yet without a critical kernel of insight that has carried me the entire year.

When I walk out of the convent doors and get in the car and sojourn back to my real life at the Weber home, I am greeted with the loving arms of my husband and kids. I am not the same woman who left such a short time ago. My gas tank is full. I know God loves me. I know He has given me everything I need to be truly happy and to serve my family and my community well.

Catholic Women’s Guide to Healthy Relationships Tip : Find a retreat that will spiritually renew you and make arrangements to go.