And the word of the Lord came to him, ‘Depart from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.’ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.

And he said, ‘Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.’ And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness.

And from time to time he would withdraw to lonely places for prayer.

In these days he went out into the hills to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God.

And he took them with him and withdrew privately to a town called Bethsaida.

(1 Kings 17: 2-6, RSV; 1 Kings 19: 11-12, RSV; Isaiah 40: 28-31, RSV; Isaiah 30: 15, RSV; Luke 4: 1-2a, RSV; Luke 5: 16, NEB; Luke 6: 12, NEB; Luke 9: 10b, NEB)

~~~

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah,’ ‘Depart from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook…’ (1 Kings 17: 3). Can’t you hear the prophet protesting: ‘Go hide myself! But, Lord, I’m a public man! I’ve gotta be where the action is. How about some more of that palace assignment? Didn’t you just love what that prophecy did to Ahab? Wow! We really shook him up, didn’t we? So, what do you mean, “Go hide yourself’? Why, Lord, it doesn’t make sense when there is so much work to do and so much life to experience.’

That is how Elijah might have responded to his new ‘assignment’ if he were the typical Western activist Christian of the late twentieth century.

Yet it is possible that, in trying to ‘be strong for the Lord’, we who are the people of God neglect the wellspring of real power — to be with our Lord in the quiet place. It ‘is in the stillness and in staying quiet that our strength lies’, says Isaiah, not in a whirlwind of activity and an abundance of noise. Retreat — a time apart from life’s action simply to be in the quiet presence of God -has sustained Christians for centuries. Out of the quiet monasteries flowed the life and truth that brought stability when the walls of civilisation crumbled in the Dark Ages. Out of the imposed stillness of a prison cell has power arisen in the likes of a John Bunyan or an Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Out of retreat comes a cure for the malaise of our day; where, in the words of Frodo Baggins from Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, ‘merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness’.

Retreat brings a ‘spot of rebirth’, Evelyn Underhill says. Retreat times can provide spiritual rebirth, quicken what has grown dull and dead in us and make us more effective in our work. In genuine retreat, that which is foundational to the spiritual life finally becomes central: namely, our relation to God.

John Casteel notes that ‘the purpose of retreat is the deepening of communion with God… the offering of ourselves to God in such a way that he can draw us into closer communion with himself- and through this communion grant us richer community with other persons in Christ and a truer understanding of ourselves. The root of this purpose is to be found in the Great Commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”, and the second is like it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”.’ Therefore, he cautions the Christian contemplating retreat to remember that ‘the true retreat does not aim either “to get work done”, or “to enjoy a holiday”. Its focus is not upon a task, a subject, a problem, or pleasurable inspiration. The centre and justification of retreat is found only in communion -in a coming to oneself, a participation with others in Christ, a being in prayer with God.’

What is retreat for? To strip away the press of the crowd, the rush of activity, the sights, sounds and lights of our unreal life so that we can drive a stake into our purpose for being: ‘To glorify God and fully enjoy him for ever’.

~~~

Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or storytelling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.’ Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I came back here, and here I have been. I have done this and that. I have written some more of my book. And, of course, I make up a few songs. They sing them occasionally: just to please me, I think; for of course, they aren’t really good enough for Rivendell. And I listen and I think. Time doesn’t seem to pass here; it just is. A remarkable place altogether.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

A first retreatant lately told me that when she confessed to her husband what she intended to do, he took his pipe out of his mouth and said earnestly: ‘Go, my dear. Go by all means! You’re just about due for a spot of rebirth.’ That man, it seems to me, had a very clear idea of one function of a retreat: its power of causing the rebirth of our spiritual sense, quickening that which has grown dull and dead in us, calling it out into light and air, giving it another chance.

Evelyn Underhill, Light of Christ

Now those who control the modern factory — wiser in their generation than the children of light — know what all this means in the exhausting and impoverishing of human material, in nervous tension, apathy, unrest. So there is no good factory without its welfare department, its rest room, its opportunity for quiet. To withdraw the worker at times from the clatter and pressure is to increase the quantity and quality of the work. So I sometimes think retreats should be regarded as a bit of spiritual welfare work; quite essential to the organisation of the church, and specially to the efficiency of its ministers. I am sure that were the making of at least a yearly retreat an absolute obligation of the priesthood, this would be a far more direct way of renewal than some of those now proposed.

I don’t mean by this to recommend the retreat for merely practical reasons — because it makes the effective active Christian even more active and effective than before. I would rather recommend it because it puts in the foreground and keeps in the foreground that which is, after all, the first interest of religion — so easily lost sight of — the one thing needful — the soul’s relation to God.

Evelyn Underhill, Light of Christ

We knew as a fellowship that our mission as the church in the world would be in peril if this outward movement did not have a corresponding movement of retreat.

Elizabeth O’Connor, Call to Commitment

Many people seek fellowship because they are afraid to be alone. Because they cannot stand loneliness, they are driven to seek the company of people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

We needed to learn to live from a quiet centre.

Elizabeth O’Connor, Call to Commitment

Later the soul will bring forth fruit exactly in the measure in which the inner life is developed in it. If there is no inner life, however great may be the zeal, the high intention, the hard work, no fruit will come forth; it is like a spring that would give out sanctity to others but cannot, having none to give; one can only give what one has. It is in solitude, in that lonely life alone with God, in profound recollection of soul, in forgetfulness of all created things, that God gives himself to the soul that thus gives itself whole and entire to him.

Charles de Foucauld

Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call to you.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

The one therefore that intends to attain to the more inward and spiritual things of religion, must with Jesus depart from the multitude and press of people. No-one doth safely appear abroad but he who can abide at home…

Who so therefore withdraweth himself from his acquaintance and friends, God will draw near unto him with his angels…

Shut thy door upon thee, and call unto thee Jesus, thy beloved. Stay with him in thy closet; for thou shalt not find so great peace anywhere else…

Seek a convenient time of leisure for thyself, and meditate often upon God’s loving-kindness. Meddle not with things too high for thee, but read such things as may rather yield compunction to thy heart than occupation to thy head.

Thomas a Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ

I believe the retreat as a part of our normal spiritual routine will yield on the whole its fullest results when we regard it more often and more generally, in Abbot Delatte’s beautiful phrase, as an opportunity of ‘steeping our souls in the beauty of the mysterious’. To dwell quietly and without self-occupation in the atmosphere of God is surely the best of all ways of redressing the balance between the temporal and eternal sides of our life.

Evelyn Underhill, Light of Christ

~~~

Lord of the still small voice: It is no wonder that so often I can’t hear you for the roar of the crowd that is in my world, for the rush of the schedule, for the sounds of a never-silent age that is full up with music boxes blaring. I’m weary of the noise and the hustle, yet I can’t stop; No — that isn’t right: rather, I won’t stop to discover the renewal of being quiet in your presence. Yet how can I imagine that if in your incarnation you had to get away to be with your Father in peace, that I shouldn’t need to get apart with you before I come apart without you?

Lord of my soul: May deep call to deep; may your voice call to my spirit stirring it to life. As a lover calls out ‘come away with me’, so I hear you calling me to yourself; where I can know the embrace of your love being set free in the intimate moment with you alone. May I no longer run from aloneness with you,. but rather run to it with heart open wide. May I no longer fear the quiet, but rather delight in the gift of silence with you. Lord of all: Present to me a place where I can meet you as a blessing of your grace. Protect the time you alot to me that no intrusion would come to assassinate the precious moments of stillness with you. Prick my heart that I may never forget, even once, that it is you I need to fill the void in me. Provide that retreat I so desperately need in days of stillness, in hours of quiet, in minutes of rest and peace, even in seconds when your presence is so real that it transforms my soul. So meet me; by your grace.

Amen.

~~~

A Benediction

May the peace of God, which transcends all human understanding, keep constant guard over your heart and mind as they rest in knowing the love of God through Christ Jesus. And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon and abide within you now and always. Amen.

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