1.0.

What is a spiritual retreat: A

spiritual retreat is an important break,
a few days spent in prayer alone with
God. It is the spiritual equivalent of an
annual car inspection or medical check-
up: time in the presence of God,
examining our Christian lives to try to
see where we're at and how we can to
improve our relationships with God and
others. People who are serious about
living as disciples of Christ often make
a point to create time for a retreat.
In retreat, we have to create lots of
time to spend in prayerful consideration
of your life in Christ.

2.0 Why we need retreat?

If we’re doing our best at living a

faithful life as Catholics, we can
actually go on retreat more often than we
realize.

A spiritual retreat is a break for the

heart and the mind. It creates a
breathing space for :
Relaxing, resting and finding comfort in
the middle of our very busy lives ;
Meeting with God in silence, reading his
Word and rekindling the fire of our faith
;
Reflecting on the meaning of our
existence, taking a step back before
making important choices ;
Exploring the key questions of life and
gaining a better understanding of the
foundations of the Christian faith.

Few questions to ponder 🤔

A. When last Did you make an

examination of conscience at the end
of the day as you pray your night
prayers?
B. When last did you stop by church
for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
or come early to Mass for quiet time?
C. Such moments are actually a kind of
mini-retreat, withdrawing briefly from
the world, putting yourself in God’s
presence, and assessing our own
spiritual life to see where we need to
do things better.
Topic For Lenten Retreat 2023: Forgive
and Forget

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for

they do not know what they are doing."
Luke 23:34.

We all need forgiveness to forge ahead in

this life.

**what does it mean to forgive and

forget? Does it mean you no longer have
any built-up resentment toward someone
who hurt you?

**Does it mean you can go on with your

life without ever thinking about what
happened again?

**Forgiving and forgetting can be a

difficult thing to do, but understanding
what it really means is the first step to
accomplishing forgiveness and moving on.

**When it feels like someone has betrayed

you and done something that may seem
unforgivable, it can be extra tricky to
forgive and forget, but guess what? it is
possible. Hard, yes, but possible all the
same.

To forgive and forget means you have

finally made peace with the offense that
has occurred and have allowed yourself to
move forward,"

"To truly forgive means you understand

the human condition and can accept that
all humans possess both positive and
negative qualities."

“Lord, if my brother sins against me, how

often must I forgive him? As many as
seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to
you, not seven times but seventy-seven
times.” Matthew 18:21-22 Take (Home
Bible study)

This question, posed by Peter to Jesus,

was asked in such a way that Peter
thought he was being quite generous in
his forgiveness. But to his surprise,
Jesus adds to Peter’s generosity in
forgiveness in an exponential way.
For many of us, this sounds good in
theory. It is inspiring and encouraging
to ponder the depths of forgiveness that
we are called to offer another. But when
it comes to daily practice, this may be
much harder to embrace.

PADRE PIO with the sick man

A man who was suffering for an unknown
ailment and has gone to different
hospitals for treatment but all to no
avail went to Padre Pio for prayers.
Padre Pio prayed for him and told him to
go, but instead of getting better, it
became worse. He came to the saint the
second time, St Padre Pio who was known
for healing also prayed for him again.
But instead of the sickness to heal, the
result was negative. He went to the saint
the third time. Padre Pio, being a gifted
priest, saw that his problem is more
psychological than spiritual. The saint
told him to list the names of those who
have wronged him. The man listed as many
as. The saint asked him if he could
forgive them, he refused. Padre Pio then
convinced him to try it as an experiment,
to see if He could get healed. The man
accepted.
After this experience, the man regained
peace of mind and later was healed
perfectly. When he went back to thank the
holy priest, Padre Pio told Him “son you
were not sick but you made yourself sick
because you have refused to let go”.

Continuing
Whenever we forgive, we do ourselves good
than the person we think we have
forgiven. When we choose to live in
grudges than peace of mind, we create
more problems for ourselves than good.
Everyone who chooses to live in grudges
is like a chained-prisoner. If we want to
set ourselves free, we must forgive.

forgiving someone can be a gift to

yourself. It's a way to escape all the
negative emotions you're feeling, because
you're allowing yourself to let go. "We
no longer need to be imprisoned by the
pain and anger of what has been done to
us. Also, Forgetting means we no longer
torture ourselves by replaying the
negative events of our lives."
Reflect, today, upon that person or
persons you need to forgive the most.
Forgiveness may not make perfect sense to
you right away and you may find that your
feelings do not fall in line with the
choice you are trying to make. Do not
give up! Continue to make the choice to
forgive, regardless of how you feel or
how hard it is. In the end, mercy and
forgiveness will always triumph, heal,
and give you the peace of Christ.
Matthew 18:21-22 Take (Home Bible study)

DAY 2

Ephesians 4:31-32; "Let all bitterness

and wrath and anger and clamor and
slander be put away from you, along with
all malice. Be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as
God in Christ forgave you."

Dear friends, we ought to write the

deeds-against-us on sand, so that the
wind of forgiveness could blow them away
but the good things, we should write on a
stone so that they stay with us forever.

The moral of this Bible verse is very

clear; we should forgive and let go of
the wrongs done to us. However, in our
day and age, people do the opposite. We
prefer to write the good things on the
sand and engrave the slightest offense on
hard stones.

The book of (Sirach 27:30— 28:7) tells us

among other things, to forgive others, so
that when we pray, our sins will be
forgiven.
Here in this Bible verse,we can see the
law of retribution and the law of the
seed-sowing showing clearly.

We get whatever we sow; we receive what

we give; in other words, we cannot get
what we do not give. Nemo dat quid non
habet…

[Deut. 32:35, 36.],Hebrews 10: 30: God

said, Vengeance is Mine [retribution and
the meting out of full justice rest with
Me]; I will repay [I will exact the
compensation], says the Lord. And again,
The Lord will judge, and determine and,
solve and,settle the cause and the cases
of His people.
Simply surrender it to God, and Forgive
your neighbour the hurt he does you,and
when you pray, your sins will be
forgiven.

A quick question to 🤔: If a man nurses

anger against another, can he then demand
compassion from the Lord?

In the Gospel Reading (Matt. 18:21-

35)focuses on forgiveness and the parable
of the unforgiving debtor, our Lord uses
this parable to provide more insight to
Peter’s question: “Lord, if my brother
sins against me, how often must I
forgive? As many as seven times?” Peter
must have tolerated a terrible brother
for a while. Before relating the parable;
our Lord tells Peter to forgive not just
seven times but seventy**seven times.

“Seventy**seven times?” That could have

been Peter’s response. Yes,
seventy**seven times means that we should
not count the number of times we forgive
wrongs. It entails that we should write
the wrong done to us on sand so that the
ever-present wind of forgiveness could
blow them away.

By calling us to forgive not only seven

times but seventy**seven times, Jesus is
telling us that there is no limit to the
depth and breadth of mercy and
forgiveness that we must offer another.
No limit!

This spiritual truth must become far more

than a theory or ideal we strive for. It
must become a practical reality which we
embrace with all our might. We must
daily seek to rid ourselves of any
tendency we have, no matter how small, to
hold a grudge and remain in anger. We
must seek to free ourselves from every
form of bitterness and allow mercy to
heal every hurt.

Back to our question “why should I for-

give?”:

I should for-give because God also

forgives me whenever I sin. (Col.3:13).
I should for-give because I also offend
others consciously and unconsciously and
even receive their forgiveness.

I should for-give because it is part of

our daily prayer to God: “forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us” (Matt. 6:12).

I should forgive because it determines my

forgiveness from God: “forgive, and you
will be forgiven (Luke 6:37).I should
for-give because it is what I do for
myself in the long run.

Reflect, today, upon that person or

persons you need to forgive the most.
Forgiveness may not make perfect sense to
you right away, and you may find that
your feelings do not fall in line with
the choice you are trying to make. Do
not give up! Continue to make the choice
to forgive, regardless of how you feel or
how hard it is. In the end, mercy and
forgiveness will always triumph, heal and
give you the peace of Christ.

GLORY BE TO THE FATHER.

DAY 3.

4 Steps to Forgiveness

Much of our pain in life comes from not

forgiving the injuries done us. If you
are in emotional or even physical pain,
forgiveness could be the answer you’ve
been seeking. You owe it to yourself to
at least explore the possibility of
forgiveness. In my work with depressed
clients and other people in pain, I use a
powerful four-step process. Here are the
four steps:

1. Uncover your anger.

In our culture, anger is often hidden,

unless it explodes in full-blown rage. We
all experience anger, but we tend to tamp
it down and hide it from others and from
ourselves.

It takes courage to get honest about

anger. It’s scary. If you express anger,
will it be uncontrollable? Will other
people tolerate it? Will you be a bad
person?
I recommend you buy a notebook and
designate it your “Anger Journal.” Write
down what you know you are angry about,
with whom you are angry, and how that
anger has impacted you.

Give yourself permission to remember

anger from your childhood, school life,
jobs, family, friendships, and romantic
relationships. If you are like most of
us, you will have a fairly long list.

Take your time. This work is likely to

churn up a lot of old emotions. The anger
is still there, deep inside you, and you
are bringing it to the surface. That’s
good, because those hidden emotions often
drive us to live unconsciously, repeating
painful experiences over and over.

2. Decide to forgive.

If someone hurt you deeply, you probably

aren’t ready to just let it go. In fact,
you may be holding on to your anger
pretty tightly. That’s human nature.
It can help to remember that holding on
to anger doesn’t hurt the other person.
It hurts you. It produces all kinds of
stress chemicals that flood your body and
make you sick, physically and
emotionally. Forgiveness is for you.

You may feel strongly the other person

deserves to suffer. But you are not in
control of that. If you could cause the
other person to suffer, you’d either be
in legal trouble, or you’d just
perpetuate the cycle of suffering,
remaining a victim of that cycle.

I suggest you begin simply. On a heart

level, you don’t feel able to forgive.
But on a head level, make a decision that
you are willing to forgive. Open the door
to the possibility.

3. Work on forgiveness.

I use an approach called reframing.

Reframing allows you to look at the
original offense in a new way.

Perhaps your father yelled at you and

otherwise ignored you. You feel he never
loved you. You feel you can’t forgive
him, and he doesn’t deserve your
forgiveness.

But there may be circumstances you have

never considered. Maybe your dad was
raised by a father who yelled at him and
ignored him. Maybe that was the only
parenting model he had. Perhaps he really
wanted to do better, but he didn’t know
how.

Maybe when you were a kid, your dad had a

lot of stress in his life. Maybe he was
brought up to think children are the
mother’s job, and making money was his
job. Perhaps he didn’t understand how
much he was hurting you.

Those things don’t change the

circumstances of your childhood, or your
experiences. But they may enable you to
see your father in a slightly different
light. Perhaps they can help you begin to
let go of some of your anger.

It could be that the injury done you was

itself an unforgivable act. Perhaps you
were seriously physically abused, or
sexually molested. Maybe you were the
victim of a terrible crime.

I will not trivialize your injury by

suggesting anything will ever make it all
right, or make you able to forget it. The
person who did that does not deserve “a
pass.”

Adults are always responsible for their

own behavior. But it might help to
consider the possibility your offender
was him or herself a victim at some time.
Molesters were often molested. Violent
criminals were often subject to violence
in their own lives.

4. Release from emotional prison.

Realize you are not alone in your

suffering. Others have experienced
similar hurts. It may be helpful now to
reach out to a support group. There are
groups for every tragic circumstance in
life, from being the adult child of an
alcoholic to being a parent of a murdered
child. Your suffering may be deep and
terrible, but it is not unique. You do
not have to be alone.
Consider also how you have grown and
changed as a result of your life
experiences. You would never have
willingly chosen them, and I wish you
could have been spared that pain, but
they have shaped you and contributed to
making you the person you are today. That
person is worthy and lovable.

As we enter the new week, let us be

courageous enough to carry the flag of
forgiveness and spread the message
wherever we go. Remember to write the
wrongs on sand and the good on stone.

Reflect, today, upon that person or

persons you need to forgive the most.
Forgiveness may not make perfect sense to
you right away and you may find that your
feelings do not fall in line with the
choice you are trying to make. Do not
give up! Continue to make the choice to
forgive, regardless of how you feel or
how hard it is. In the end, mercy and
forgiveness will always triumph, heal and
give you the peace of Christ.
Lord, give me a heart of true mercy and
forgiveness. Help me to let go of all
bitterness and pain I feel. In place of
these, give me true love and help me to
offer that love to others without
reserve. I love You, dear Lord. Help me
to love all people as You love them.

Tips to apply for self improvement.

1. When you are alone, mind your
thoughts 💬
2. When you are with friends, mind
your tongue 👅
3. When you are angry, mind your
temper 🤪
4. When you are with a group, mind
your behaviour
5. When you are in trouble, mind your
emotions
6. When God starts blessings you, mind
your ego.