Use the Lenten season to examine your spiritual life.

That was the suggestion from Archbishop Edward Gilbert last Monday, day one of the first Lenten retreat in the archdiocese – the annual midday retreat at Rosary church, Port of Spain.

“Examine the quality of your relationship with God, examine the quality of your relationship with others and examine the quality of your relationship with yourself,” he said.

The archbishop said most people understood about developing a relationship with God but some did not understand about developing a relationship with the self. However, he said, the latter was important because if the spirit was troubled one might feel “out of sync”.

Before beginning his talk, he told the retreatants – many of them workers on their lunch break, how to get the most out of a retreat.

He said: “To make an effective retreat you need to ask the Spirit to enable you to concentrate on God through quiet, prayer, reflective reading and dialogue.” He advised them to concentrate on God for one hour together, for five days, and to also find quiet time at home to reflect.

The archbishop spoke about holiness, saying though it might seem like a vague concept this was not so. “Holiness is not complicated. Holiness is not vague but specific. Holiness is nothing more than living the values of God. Holiness is about trying to live the Gospel that makes us more human, more spiritual, more social.” He called on the congregation to strive for holiness during Lent.

Speaking on the theme Conversion, Archbishop Gilbert identified the four ways in which conversion could be interpreted.

He said conversion could be viewed as moving from non-belief to belief. He lamented that today there were many “good people who don’t believe in anything” and added that the Church must constantly reach out to them.

Another understanding of conversion was that it entailed moving from one form of Christian belief to another, the Archbishop said. He commented that the media often focussed on those who left the Church, and not on those who joined.

Conversion from sin to grace was the third interpretation, while the fourth was related to “an ongoing invitation in Christ”.

Archbishop Gilbert said there must be more to faith and holiness than an intellectual perspective. “If the mind is not talking to the heart, your feet will never move,” he said, noting that all children of God were called to mission. He added: “Faith cannot be active unless we have a personal experience of Christ.”

The archbishop said all Lenten retreats in the archdiocese would have an element of solidarity as the local church prepared for the Synod in October.

See the Archbishop’s Column for more, and the listing of Lenten retreats.
 - RS