Coming Back From Sabbatical

Retreats, sabbaticals, and sabbath rest are glorious things: time set apart to be with the Lord, in His presence, attentive to His work in a way we miss at times in the day-to-day busyness of life. Sometimes the hardest part of retreat is the end. After all, you “have competed well . . . have finished the race . . . have kept the faith”  (2 Timothy 4:7). 

So what now? 

To continue St. Paul’s analogy, after a long run or hard workout you need time to cool down. In fact, some argue that the cooling down process is the most important part of the workout. It improves circulation, prevents stiffness, and over time, improves overall performance. And, as is the case with so many things of the body, so it is for the soul. The “cool down” time after a retreat solidifies graces, promotes new fervor, and strengthens us spiritually. 

How do we enter that time after a retreat? What does it concretely look like? I offer three ways: a gathering of graces, resolutions, and an entrustment to Mary.

Gathering of Graces

A gathering of graces, an Ignatian practice, is exactly what it sounds like. Where did God work during the time away with Him? What do you understand differently about Him and yourself now? What are you grateful for? 

It’s important to have this to reflect on throughout the next few months, even years. We have all experienced the let down from a “retreat high”—but gathering the graces helps us to move past that to remember all the good the Lord has done (Psalm 126:3). Even if you are not someone who frequently journals—or even if you have never journaled—write these graces down. Scientific studies show that we remember things better when we write them by hand. And don’t just write it down and stuff it on a shelf. But for the next few weeks review the graces once a week, letting the Holy Spirit remind you of what He’s done and is still doing. (John 14:26)

Resolutions

At the end of your time, it is good to set resolutions. These resolutions will carry the graces received during your retreat into your everyday life. 

We’ve all experienced setting resolutions and then not following through. What’s the difference with setting resolutions after a retreat experience? You have received many graces during your time away because “[g]race is a participation in the life of God” (CCC §1997). You may not see them, or even know them, but they are there! Have confidence that “the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:4). 

The resolutions you make are simple reminders of the encounters you’ve had with the Lord and His work in you. It might be offering a decade of the Rosary in thanksgiving once a week for graces received. It could be looking over your gathering of graces once a week for the next month during your prayer time. It could be spiritual reading on a particular grace the Lord brought to light. It doesn’t have to be complex, and really shouldn’t be, as then it could distract from the real gift of the retreat: a deeper encounter with the Lord. I heard someone recently say, “What the devil can’t destroy he accelerates.” The evil one does this also with resolutions—both Lenten and retreat ones—by trying to get us to complicate the resolutions so that we will abandon them.   

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Entrustment to Our Lady 

That’s why we need Our Lady! We can entrust the graces received during our time of rest and retreat to her. One of my friends has seasonal bins into which she gathers her children’s toys, and then brings them out again the next year or when the children need a refresh. There might be a little complaining or whining when the toy is first tucked away, but when she brings them out again, it’s like Christmas! Many had been forgotten about, and now are happy reminders and a refresher. 

I see Our Lady doing much the same with us and the graces we entrust to her. As a good mother, she is happy to hold on to them until we need them. She also sees the bigger picture better than we do. She knows when we need the reminder and the refresher. It may hurt initially to entrust them over to her, but when she reminds us later of the gift it’s exactly when we need it. St. Bernardine said, “All the gifts, graces, virtues of the Holy Spirit are distributed by the hands of Mary, to whom she wills, when she wills, as she wills, and in the measure she wills.” 

St Louis de Montfort says in True Devotion to Mary: 

“Pour, pour into the bosom and the heart of Mary all your treasures, all your graces, all your virtues. She is a spiritual vessel, she is a vessel of honor, she is a marvelous vessel of devotion. Since God Himself has been shut up in person, with all His perfections, in that vessel, it has become altogether spiritual, and the spiritual abode of the most spiritual souls.” 

Even after a time of sabbatical, our vessels are still fragile. We’ve grown, learned and formed new habits, but we’re still fragile. Our Lady’s vessel is not—she can weather any storm that comes along after our time of rest. She's the ironclad to our vulnerable wooden ship. 

Storms will come. We will want to run back to the place of rest. We may be tempted to give up on the resolutions we have made or to doubt the graces we have been given. But Jesus assures us: “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you” (John 14:26).  So most of all, be at peace. “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).