Sharing the Charis Experience is a feature in which retreat participants describe a Charis retreat or program which has touched their lives.

Sharing the Charis Experience

This semester’s Charis retreat was probably one of the best I have been on in a long time.  The prayer services were fantastic, the setting was phenomenal, and having the retreat on Friday and Saturday was amazing.  I enjoyed every single part of the retreat.  There was not a moment when I felt the retreat fading.  We had the retreat in the chapel, which really set the mood. Having the tabernacle in the background throughout the retreat made everything especially holy; there is something to say about having Jesus physically present in the retreat.  We also had a litany of the saints, a blessing of the senses, and ended with a blessing with oil.  All of the prayer services took me out of myself and put my focus on God.  Each prayer service made the Lord truly present in the retreat, which greatly enhanced my experience.  The extra time also gave the small group more time to connect; the conversations were able to grow.  People shared their experiences in much more depth, and it created a better experience for not only me, but also many of the participants as well.  The extra day also allowed for more talks, which went really well.  The extra talks allowed for better development of the theme of the retreat.  Everything about the retreat created a completely enjoyable and spiritual experience.

I could feel the presence of God all throughout the retreat.  To be more specific, though, being a part of the planning team was something that helped point out God’s presence to me.  This team was an amazing community, and it greatly strengthened my retreat experience.  We were always focused on creating an amazing retreat experience for the participants.  Each member of the team had unique backgrounds and perspectives with came together to create a wonderful planning group.  The retreat went off without a hitch, all because of the efforts of the team.  I feel like I experienced the retreat as much as a participant would, something that only happens when the team works well together and everyone is doing their job well.  Being a part of such a great team was truly a communal, holy experience.  It was probably one of the main reasons why I loved the retreat so much.  With the strong planning team, I believe all of the participants were able to have an amazing experience as well.  God was able to make His presence known through our strong chemistry as a team.  As a result, there were quite a few powerful “God Moments”.  One example is after “Community” talk, we sang “We are one body” with everyone’s arms around each other.  It was truly a powerful moment.  That is just one example of the many powerful moments that happened throughout the retreat.  Through the great reviews, the amazing conversation, and my own experience, I think it was an extremely successful retreat.  It gave me a newfound zeal for retreats and Catholicism, and I cannot wait until the next Charis retreat.