This week Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia began their annual Lenten retreat in Ariccia. The retreat, which runs until tomorrow, is based on the theme "The raw questions of the Gospel". Fr Ermes Ronchi, of the Servants of Mary, leads the group through spiritual exercises around 10 questions from the Gospels.
On Monday, the group looked at the topic of fear with the help of the question, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (Mark 4:40). Fear is an emotion that we're all familiar with and we can experience it in countless circumstances. It's also something that God was very that we are prone to experience and we know this because throughout the Bible we are told many times not to be afraid. Fear prevents us from trusting and believing completely in God. It's a feeling that we need to work through in order to have fulfilling and authentic relationships.
While exploring the topic of fear at the retreat, Fr Ermes Ronchi looked at its relationship with faith and trust, and how fear equates to a lack of trust in God because we wrongly believe in a God who takes away and not in a God who gives. He said: "Jesus teaches us there is only one way to conquer fear: it is faith!"
How we can all inject elements of a spiritual retreat into our routines
During this annual Lenten retreat Pope Francis has suspended all his public meetings and appearances. This is also the third consecutive year that he has embarked on the retreat outside of Rome to resist the temptation to work during this period. Lent is a great time to introduce elements of a spiritual retreat into our routine as we work to deepen our faith and strengthen our relationship with Jesus. We might not be able to take a week off to focus purely on our faith at this time but we can adopt some of the Pope's practices into our Lenten observance.
1. Organise a Bible study group
Get together with some friends and pick a theme to work through over the course of a few weeks. Maybe there is a particular concern or area of interest that you share, if not, you could look more in depth at a theme discussed at your church each week.
2. Spend one hour alone praying, reading and meditating on God's Word
Prayer is one of the three practices of Lent but it can be the one that we neglect the most. Dedicating a specific time slot to it will help us to give ourselves the right environment to pray deeper and more meaningfully. The same goes with regular Bible reading. It will become a habit a lot quicker if you allocate a dedicated portion of your time to it.
3. Volunteer
By volunteering our time and skills we can put what we've learnt from our spiritual retreat into action. Our actions are so important in our faith so this shouldn't be an area that we fail to devote time and energy to.
