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This week I will be on a retreat in Missouri. Retreats are wonderful ways of refocusing yourself back to God. It is a requirement that all priests should take a retreat at least once a year to force ourselves to slow down and spend some extra time away from the office in more focused prayer. In the past few years, I have done some different retreats, but I have not done the retreat with the priests of the Des Moines Diocese for a number of years and I thought that it would be time to do it again. This retreat tends to be part retreat and prayer, and part getting the priests together to socialize.

While this retreat will be quiet in some ways, it will not be a silent one. I do enjoy the silent retreats sometimes. What this means, is that during the time that retreat is going on, it will be completely silent with the exception of Mass and communal prayer times. I have done a couple of them, and they can be a challenge, especially at the beginning as you take that time to calm yourself. When I mean that the retreat is silent, it also means severely limiting other outside distractions as well. This means to refrain from not only talking, but also not checking emails, social media, and text messages, no surfing the web, checking out news sites, online shopping, etc. In a silent retreat, we want to try and cut ourselves off from the outside world as much as possible and focus on prayer times and spiritual reading. Like I said, it can be a challenge, especially in a world that is so noisy.

A book that I read in the past that has really helped me at times with the quiet is one from Cardinal Sarah, called “The power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise.” I love the subtitle of it! It is a reminder to me that sometimes we need to take that time to enter into silence to really be able to listen to God. Remember when the prophet Elijah was looking for God, he was not in the earthquake, or the wind, or in the fire, but was in the tiny whisper. For us to be able to hear that whisper, we need to eliminate some of the extra noise, and while that can be a challenge, it can also be a blessing. During this retreat though, there will be some quiet time, but it will not be silent. The good thing is that I know the area so I can get to some good walking trails while down there.

Since Fr Ryan will also be gone, I will have my phone on, but I will not be answering it. If there is an emergency, call the office and get to my extension, leave a message, and I will get back to you as soon as I am able. I also ask that you will keep me in your prayers, especially that I will receive what God wants me to get out of this retreat. I will keep you all in my prayers as well.

God bless,
Fr. Ken