The Busy Person’s Retreat…
A Time Out With God

By Marinell High and Patrick Gribben
Members, Diocesan Pastoral Council

The alarm goes off, you hit the snooze for the third time, and finally make it out of bed. No time for breakfast… there is a need to get to class, get to work or to run errands. For many of us, the pace of today's lifestyle leaves us asking, "When is there time for me and God?" A growing number of people are finding the answer to that question in an experience that some call "The Busy Person's Retreat."

As the name implies, this retreat is designed for the person who finds it difficult to devote a significant block of time to the more traditional retreat format. To make certain that participants achieve a deepened spiritual life - which is the basic objective of a retreat in the first place - this altered format relies on two key ingredients: flexibility and a strong commitment from the retreatants and spiritual directors alike.

Within the Diocese of Lansing, this retreat structure is being successfully employed both in the parish and in the academic communities. Because their environments differ, the programs in each have some slight distinctions but the fundamentals are the same. There are group opening and closing sessions to "sandwich" the heart of the program which is a number of one-on-one sessions between the participants and the spiritual directors.

How have the Busy Person’s Retreats fared so far?

Sharon Wimple is Director of Pastoral Care at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan, and has undergone the extensive training required to become a certified spiritual director and has been providing that service for almost 20 years. Here is how she describes her involvement in this form of retreat at Siena Heights University in Adrian:

"I met with several college women in the most recent busy person's retreat and it was a wonderful experience. It gave each of us an opportunity to leave the world outside our meeting room door. We shared things about ourselves and I listened as each of the students talked about the stories of faith that brought each of them to my door. There was a tremendous awareness that grew during the week of how important it was in all our lives to carve out a little piece of sanity in our very crazy, busy days to take the time to be still, to reflect and to pray."

Sharon has been part of the program at Siena Heights for the past three years although the busy person retreats have been going on there much longer than that. It is usually offered in the spring and again in the fall. The number of participants can range from 20 to 30 persons, including students and faculty members. Sharon and her colleagues draw on spiritual directors from surrounding communities to help conduct the retreats.

At St. Joseph Parish in Dexter, Michigan, Mary Ann D. Carolin and Joe Scheuring also been trained as spiritual directors and have been serving in that capacity for 32 and seven years, respectively. They have conducted a pair of Busy Person's Retreats for a total of 20 parishioners over the past two Lenten periods. Sr. Concetta Fabo, OSF - also an experienced spiritual director and director of several parish ministries at St. Joseph - helped introduce the program the first year. Since then, Sr. Concetta has returned to her mother house to assume spiritual duties there.

Encouraged by Mary Ann's successful experiences conducting Busy Person's Retreats in her previous parishes in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the three directors sought and secured the approval of Rev. Brendan J. Walsh, pastor, to offer the program at St. Joseph Parish. Fr. Walsh has been very supportive of the program and it has been offered both years without cost to participants.

Mary Ann's many years of experience give her a rich perspective on her role in the retreat, "For me, it is an honor to be entrusted with what the retreatants share with us; each has something unique to contribute. They said they had a very positive experience and we, in turn, felt gifted by their presence. After all, when you get to the bottom line, all ministry is mutual. Both persons benefit from the relationship."

At Siena Heights, the program spans a week and opens with a group session after Sunday Liturgy. According to Sharon, "Gathering together helps create a greater awareness of community within the group and that each person is part of something larger than themselves. They are there to support each other."

Following the Adrian group's opening session, there is a time commitment for the individual of about ninety minutes each day over the four or five days of the retreat. The person meets with the spiritual director for about a half-hour each day, spends a half-hour in prayer and a similar amount of time in a group meeting. As the relationship with the participant deepens, the director may suggest certain spiritual readings, help the retreatant explore various prayer forms or walk with the student through particular struggles the individual may be having in his/her faith life or life in general.

Along with the spiritual direction meetings, the retreatant commits to one or more supplementary activities to pursue during the program. These can be going to Mass each morning, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, walking the labyrinth, receiving the sacrament of reconciliation or performing acts of charity.

Similarly, at St. Joseph, the retreat opens with a group session spanning an hour or so of self-introductions, music, readings and special prayer. There are also some "housekeeping" details such as setting up the two meetings with the spiritual director that will follow during the first week. Flexibility in scheduling is important here. The spiritual director knows that limited time availability is one of the paramount factors that brought the retreatant to this program in the first place.

Because the director needs to accommodate the "Busy Person's" schedule, director availability determines the number of participants. As Mary Ann points out, "We are not looking for large numbers here. We are interested in assuring an enriching experience for the participant and that does not necessarily translate into large numbers. We need to make certain that the participant is comfortable with the director and with the meeting arrangements because this is an intimate relationship. The participants are sharing with us the treasures of their hearts."

In the program at St. Joseph Parish, the directors and retreatants meet four times over a two-week span. The meetings, like those at Siena Heights, are opportunities in which the participants can explore their relationship with God. According to Joe Scheuring, "Our sessions flow from the experiences of the retreatants. Ours is a listening ministry… we are 'companions.'"

He continues, "The spiritual director may ask some questions here and there, but everything is designed to enable the retreatant to take their experiences to a deeper level and to examine their feelings while doing so. Our questions may be along the line of 'Where is God in all of this?' It is within their feelings that God speaks."

The spiritual directors find it is a rich time to provide some resources… prayers, books, readings… as the discussions warrant. Everything in the retreat is tailored to the parishioner's needs. Common to the programs, participants are urged to adopt the discipline of making certain that time is set aside for prayer every day and that they listen for God's voice in their lives.

In both programs, a group session concludes the retreat.

At Siena Heights, Sharon says, "We end the experience with a meal and share what the week was like for each of us. In our final session, one student stated that 'As a result of this program, I realized that no matter how busy I am, I still must make time for God a priority and I realized that it is possible to do so.'"

The retreat closes at St. Joseph just as it opened… there are readings, music and special prayer. At the conclusion of last year's program, the participants were asked to evaluate their experience.

"They gave the program very high marks and were very excited and positive about it," Joe says. "Some even asked if they could do it again. It was a very powerful experience and the retreatants were aglow with what they had accomplished. They felt that taking time over the two weeks to slow down and be more reflective enhanced the retreat experience. Most importantly, they had a new sense of God's presence in their lives."

"Presuming there is a sufficient number of spiritual directors available," Joe continues, "In the future, it may be practical to look at offering four of these retreat sessions a year with about eight or nine participants in each. We would like to do it more often, but we need to consider the demands the schedule makes upon the directors."

Quadrupling the number of offerings may not happen tomorrow. Nevertheless, the future of the Busy Person's Retreat at Siena Heights and at St. Joseph's seems bright. It not only meets the needs more and more people are having, it is also the death knell for the old excuse: "I cannott make that retreat; I do not have the time!"

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Persons To Contact:

Mary Ann D. Carolin, Member, St. Joseph Parish, Dexter, MI
and Spiritual Director
Telephone: 734-747-9259

Joseph Scheuring, Member, St. Joseph Parish, Dexter, MI
and Spiritual Director
Telephone: 734-426-3586

Sharon Wimple, Director of Pastoral Care at the Dominican Life Center, Adrian, MI, Member, Pastoral Council, Diocese of Lansing
and Certified Spiritual Director
Telephone: 517-266-3656