Together on Retreat: Meeting Jesus in Prayer

By James Martin

How can we find God? How can we pray? What can we learn about Jesus from the New Testament stories about his ministry around the Sea of Galilee? In this innovative e-book, Rev. James Martin, S.J. invites us on an actual retreat to answer those questions and to encounter God's presence in prayer and meditation.

Martin, an experienced spiritual guide, teaches you how to pray with Scriptures and answers your questions about prayer in ways that are accessible to both doubtful seekers and devout believers. This fresh, insightful and personal retreat experience is a must for anyone looking to explore this ancient practice in a contemporary way.

Includes reflection questions for personal study or reading groups, as part of the full retreat experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062270092

James Martin

Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestsellers Jesus: A Pilgrimage, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and My Life with the Saints, which Publishers Weekly named one of the best books of 2006. Father Martin is a frequent commentator in the national and international media, having appeared on all the major networks, and in such diverse outlets as The Colbert Report, NPR's Fresh Air, the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.  Before entering the Jesuits in 1988 he graduated from the Wharton School of Business.

Book preview

What’s a Retreat?

RETREATS ARE BIG BUSINESS these days—quite literally. Corporations, colleges, hospitals, high schools, and all sorts of professional organizations often ask their employees to carve out time for a retreat. Typically, this involves inviting people to spend a day, a weekend, or even a week away from the office in a quiet setting where the group engages in (take your pick) brainstorming, reviewing the past year, or strategic planning. Some of the more lavish corporate retreats may be held at far-flung resorts in a sylvan setting. Simpler ones might be at a local conference center or hotel ballroom.

The practice has become so common that a friend who works for a large corporation said to me a few years ago, I’m going on a retreat—just like you!

Then he smiled and said, "Well, maybe not exactly."

What he meant was this: retreats began not in the corporate world, but in the spiritual world. And originally retreats weren’t focused on business matters, but on something, or someone, else. Essentially, a retreat means taking time away from the busy-ness of everyday life in order to focus more on your spiritual life. A retreat is an extended period of time spent with God in prayer.

In the Christian world, retreats find their origin in Jesus’s own practice of withdrawing from his disciples to pray, often in what the Gospels describe as a secluded place. Jesus does this frequently—and he does so from the start of his public life. The very first chapter of the Gospel of Mark tells us this about Jesus, who has just begun his preaching and healing: In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed (1:35).

Jesus needed not only time away from the disciples and the crowds, but one-on-one time with God the Father in prayer. He needed to recharge his spiritual batteries—as all of us do.

Later on, the great monastic orders of the Catholic Church required regular retreats—a few days of concentrated prayer—for their members. In the sixth century, St. Benedict suggested that his Benedictine monks intensify their already austere spiritual practices during the period of Lent. Almost one thousand years later, St. Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), the founder of the Jesuit Order, popularized a more formalized version of the retreat in his book Spiritual Exercises, in which specific meditations are used to help retreatants enter more deeply into a relationship with God. Soon the Spiritual Exercises became popular not only with Jesuits, but with people from all walks of life.

Today Christian spiritual retreats take place in a variety of settings. Often people go to a retreat house specifically designed for that purpose. These are usually big, rambling buildings that can accommodate anywhere from a handful to a hundred retreatants and are often located in a wooded or rural area, far from the din of daily activity. My own favorite is a Jesuit retreat house located on the Atlantic Ocean, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Just as often people travel to a monastery, where the monks are used to hosting visitors on retreat.

Retreats take different forms. On a directed retreat, individuals see a spiritual director on a daily basis and discuss what is happening in their personal prayer. You might do a directed retreat in a group (that is, in a retreat house with others on retreat) or on your own (you might be the sole guest in the monastery’s guest house that week). There are also guided retreats, which might focus on a particular topic (for example, women’s spirituality, or preparing for marriage, or learning about new ways to pray). Guided retreats usually offer presentations or lectures as well as opportunities to meet with a director—though on a less regular basis than during a directed retreat. Another popular form is the preached retreat, which consists mainly of listening to presentations and praying on your own, with somewhat less opportunity for one-on-one spiritual direction.

Almost all of these retreats are done in an atmosphere of silence, which helps people dwell more in the relationship with God than with those around them. Not that there’s anything wrong with other people! But remember, a retreat is one-on-one time with God.

So there are a wide variety of retreat styles, and a variety of schedules too. Probably the most intense version is the full Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, which is usually spread over thirty days. Many people choose an eight-day retreat, which is required annually of most priests and members of religious orders in the Catholic Church. Weekend or overnight retreats are also popular.

Normally, spiritual directors will say, The longer, the better! But God can work within any time frame or setting. Besides, few people have thirty days, or even eight days, to devote to a retreat.

Of course, Christians aren’t the only ones who make spiritual retreats. Buddhist retreats are becoming increasingly popular, and any sort of pilgrimage to a holy site undertaken by Christians, Jews, or Muslims can be seen as a retreat if done in a prayerful manner. Last year I took a trip to the Holy Land (more about that later) and found that visiting the holy sites helped me to pray more deeply. More broadly, the idea of withdrawing from daily life to seek out inner peace

Reviews for Together on Retreat

[jamestomasino · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a wonderful relief, taking my back to my own days in Gloucester during the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. I really enjoyed the insights into the settings around the sea of Galilee. Jim's descriptions helped inform my prayerful imagination and led me to a series of new experiences with God.

It's a quick read, and a great introduction or refresher to Ignatian Prayer. Highly recommended.