Retreating

Have you ever taken, or been on, a retreat? This question sounds quite formal so let me ask another way: have you ever retreated?

According to the Cambridge on-line dictionary, to retreat means “to go away from a place or person in order to escape from fighting or danger: Attacks by enemy aircraft forced the tanks to retreat (from the city). When she came towards me shouting, I retreated (behind my desk).”1 To retreat is to reverse, pull back, even step away.

When I visited St Buenos Jesuit Spirituality Retreat Centre (north Wales) this March I wasn’t escaping the attack of enemy aircraft or tanks, but I guess I was consciously taking time out, or stepping back, for a short time from the intensity of work and home. I was desperate to retreat; I knew it and others around me did too! We all need to retreat at times, not because of weakness but because of our common human condition: I think our well-being depends on doing so!

Positive and healthy retreating can take many forms and depends upon us individually considering what sort of retreat suits our needs or outlook. For some, retreats are a deeply religious experience, where retreatants ‘pull back’ from the daily grind of life and enters a physical place (such as a monastery), with God, to rest, reflect, and to be renewed. This

by Padre Dave Skillen

was something Jesus did in the Gospels many times - he withdrew to ‘lonely places to pray’ (cf. Luke 5:16). But, retreat is also popular with people who do not profess a religious faith yet who nonetheless recognise within themselves a need to step off the treadmill for a time to rest from work and home, to reflect on their life and its meaning and purpose, and to be refreshed and restored for the road ahead. When I signed up for my ‘Individually Guided Retreat’ at St Buenos I hadn’t realised I had signed up for a silent retreat…until I got there!

Silence came as something of a shock to the system, as they say. This was mainly because, even for a padre, life is usually filled with noise and activity but now I suddenly found myself dropped into absolute silence and the shock reaction felt akin to being hot and then being dropped into cold water! The shock of capture was intense but after a day and a half I found myself positively calming into the stillness; a once threatening silence became a new and welcomed active tranquillity. Only by taking the conscious step to (go on) retreat was I able to interrupt and change my ill-established focus from merely doing functional activity to that of being actively tranquil. This special place of being, of active tranquillity, can be located within the deepest self, nor do you have to go to St Buenos (or any other physical place) to enter it. Of course, our physical environment is important; being away from the distractions of everyday can, and often does, make us more likely to switch off and to do the work of resting, reflecting, renewing. I came back down to earth, to reality, gently after only a few days of retreat. I had been encouraged to journal on retreat and after easing into this task, I discovered it was enriching and aided the process of resting and reflecting. In turn, this helped me rethink and reshape simple priorities for returning to home and work.

It’s June as I type these words and I am still being sustained by this gift of just a few days’ retreat – which ought not to be the reserve of professional religious folk – padres – like me. You too could retreat, and perhaps you should…sometime soon? You can do this simply today, by walking somewhere quiet and sitting in the stillness. Or, why not consider one of the annual Retreats I enable in my role as Principal RC Chaplain (RAF). You don’t have to be Catholic, or even religious, you just have to be willing to enter into a place within yourself of active tranquillity.

Get in touch if you are interested in find out more david.skillen100@mod.gov.uk. They are hugely popular. Why not give it a go!

Hermann Hesse (2 July 1877-9 August 1962) German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter

1 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/ english/retreat accessed 13th June 2023.