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Discovering Intimacy with God
A 52 week retreat
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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Retreat Director Michael Fonseca leads you through a year long retreat that can be done on a daily basis. During 48 weeks of the year you will pray each day of the week on a separate topic whose subject matter will be a combination and integration of Scripture, The Imitation of Christ, Michael's books Living in God's Embrace and Loving in the Master's Footsteps, and the spiritual wisdom of the saints that has been passed down to us through the centuries. The other four weeks will be devoted to Repetitions, and they will enter into the schedule every ten weeks. Essentially these four weeks will be devoted to resting in the Lord when you will taste and savor in a more leisurely fashion the graces and insights that you received during the previous ten weeks.
The retreat has been designed to give you a deeper appreciation of Scripture and the spiritual life. The first sixteen weeks focus on understanding the place of God in our lives from the Biblical perspective. These weeks lay the foundation on which the rest of the retreat can build. The segment from weeks 17 through 30, focus on prayer as it has been understood and taught by Jesus and his disciples over the ages. This will be a time of getting in touch with our spiritual roots more deeply to see how privileged we are to belong to such a holy community. The third segment, from weeks 31 through 41, focus on the teachings of Jesus about discipleship and the necessary conditions for it. Weeks 42 through 48 look at the place of the Holy Spirit in our spiritual lives as well as the response to God's call of Mary, mother of Jesus, the apostles Peter and Paul. The last four weeks look at the unfolding of contemplative prayer as understood by saints like Teresa of Avilla, John of the Cross, and the English Mystics.
At the outset it needs to be said that engaging in this retreat will require a serious commitment on your part. You will need generosity of heart and magnanimity of spirit. So you would need to ask the Holy Spirit to give you the proper dispositions during the retreat. And you will not be alone. There will be many praying for you. What is important is that you place all your trust in the loving guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit who will bring to completion the good work begun in you.
I will pray that you become the disciple Jesus has always wanted you to be.
And I ask you to pray for me as well
- Michael Fonseca.
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