September 29, 2003 

"Resolution"

Usually in any retreat situation, whether we're taking, receiving, or giving a retreat, we're always looking for that one basic theme that the Lord is speaking to us about.  The Lord will not give two words.  We've never ever known Him to do that.  It's just one because God is simple.  Everything about God is simple.  There won't be two themes in one retreat.  There'll just be one basic point that He's driving home all the time. 

While on retreat, when we do a lot of journaling, we should go through our journal, taking maybe one or two pages and summarize on another loose page.  "What really happened that particular day of prayer?"  Then we can look at our journaling over the week. "Well, over this first week, basically this is what He was showing me."  Sometimes we have so much journaling that the theme might get lost in there for us.  So we can take another piece of paper and dissect what we are receiving.  "Yes, for about three days in this particular week, this is what came forth in prayer.  I didn't see that it was really the same thing that You said to me before, but now I see that it's really the same thing."

So this week it is time to review our journals.  Reviewing the journal will be very important.  Try to pull out that one basic theme. 

One time I was directing a priest on retreat who really felt that he just couldn't get the theme.  So I told him, "Just take one day at a time and see.  What did God particularly say to you that day?  There's going to be just one thought, one particular subject.  Put it on another piece of paper."  And so he did that.  He was making an eight-day retreat, so he had about eight days to review.  Then all of a sudden, he saw, "Every day, every day, every day in different ways God was saying the same thing." 

So I urge you to dissect your journal if you have to in order to find it.  Sometimes it's really clear.  It's just really obvious what He's saying.  God loves to repeat Himself.  That's going to show you the consistent pattern.  He sees us as children, and children need that repetition.  God repeats and repeats and repeats.  You'll see this in Jesus' teachings over and over.  He'll repeat something. 

Now, the reason we do that is two-fold.  We want to very clearly hear the message that God is saying to us, what He wants to change in our lives, something He is asking us to do for Him, or something He wants to strengthen in us. 

Then it's our time to respond to that.  We call that the retreat resolution.  It's very important in Ignatian spirituality.  Ignatius calls it "the election."  For some, it may be a vocation decision where they will start to see which state of life they're being called to.  It may be, "Is God calling me to deeper gratitude?  Is He calling me to deeper prayer?  Is He calling me to make a change in my job?"  It could be something major. It's going to show up.  Once we understand what God's invitation to us is, then our response to that would be very simple.  First of all, hopefully it will be a yes to whatever He is asking.  Then we encourage retreatants to list about four different yet simple points of how they are going to implement this, how they are going to protect that message and word that they received from the Lord, and how they are going to live it out.
 
When I was still in the cloister, God was asking me for deeper surrender to Him perfect will.  Now that was what the retreat was showing-a radical abandonment, full, total surrender to His will.  But that's very general.  So it was time for my response.  I had to come up with different ways that I could protect that.  For me it was:
 1) Obedience to my superiors (that very concretely puts me in God's will); 
 2) Obedience to the Holy Rule; 
 3) Deference to the sisters; and 
 4) Journaling my prayer time. 

So I had four very concrete points to help me to fulfill what God was asking of me on my retreat.  Your points will be very simple. If God is calling you to a more serious commitment to prayer, then saying, "Yes, I'm going to pray more when my retreat's over" is too general.  It has to be very specific.  "Lord, I feel You're calling me to a deeper commitment of prayer."  So you may decide that you're going to spend thirty minutes or an hour a day in prayer, so name the time of the day.  Be very specific.  Once you come off like the mountaintop, the enemy will attack you big time, and you will not make the commitment at that time.  So you need to have it in writing. 

We're going to see the pattern of what God is asking of us, whether it be to slow down, to get more rest, to spend more time with our family, whatever He is saying.  Then very concretely-how  am I going to implement this?  We suggest trying to do it in about four simple points.  Simple so that you can put it on  another piece of paper somewhere in your journal and then weekly review it.  "This is what it was all about.  Am I doing it?"  "Oh, no, gee, I forgot to do that.  I wasn't in the habit yet."  This helps bring us back into the commitment then.
 
So we want to choose what God chooses.  We're so used to New Years' resolutions where we decide what we're going to do for the Lord, or what we're going to do for the New Year.  A retreat resolution isn't like that.  God makes the choice.  He makes the decision.  It'll be different in everybody's journal.  Our choice is if we want to accept what He has chosen, what He is saying to me.  That's my choice.  God has already chosen.  I clarify it.  I write it out, usually in one sentence.  This is basically what the Lord is saying to me in this retreat.  It's going to come down ultimately to one sentence.  Then my response to that will be in three or four short points.  By writing it down and giving these very concrete ways I'm going to implement that in my life will help protect it.  It will start to happen.  Jesus said, "Blessed are they who hear My word (that's just half of it) and live it out" (see Lk 11:28).  So the resolution will help us to live out what we've been hearing.

As the weeks go on, that retreat resolution will start to feed us.  It will be a springboard.  It will grow.  Like water it will start to bubble up.  We will see and hear things at Mass or in Scriptures in this particular area that normally we wouldn't see or hear if we didn't already know what God was inviting us to.  This is just the basic invitation that He's showing us.  Then the implementation of it will come in the day-to-day living it out.  We need the protection of the written word because Satan will try to rob us.  He'll come along with, "Oh, did God really say that?"  Then after a while, as we get busier and busier and further away from this retreat, we might think, "I don't know if He really said that.  Well yes, He said that, but I'm not sure that's what He meant."  We'll start to lose it.  Satan loves to rob us of the joy from hearing from God.  He just can't stand anybody that's connected with the Lord to be happy.  So writing this out really protects it our retreat resolution.  It's like a springboard; we'll be diving into deeper and deeper waters in the months ahead. 

This week is the key week because when we go into the third week of the Exercises, it's going to be what Ignatius calls "the confirmation" or the strengthening of our resolutions.

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's "Heart-to-heart Listening: Resolution," 2000.