St. Teresa of Jesus Community
2018 Retreat
Little Flower Monastery, Carmel Hill, Deroche, BC.

The Community’s retreat took place from 27th July to 29th July 2018 commencing with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist by Fr. Alexander Braganza OCD, Retreat Master. He began with the introduction of the retreat theme “Call to Holiness”. He made reference to the saints who, in spite of their weaknesses, show us that the path to holiness is attainable and we are all called to it.

The atmosphere of peace and quiet together with our solitude time, interspersed with community prayer, daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist, talks, Stations of the Cross, Benediction and Exposition with conducted meditation provided us with a greater sense of community whilst enabling us to go deeper in our encounter with the Living Christ.

Our time for reflection was fueled by Fr. Alex’s talks on the Call to Holiness with references to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation “Gaudete Et Exsultate”. Our path to holiness is unique. We all have opportunities to practise heroic virtues but we require grace. We can’t aspire to holiness in isolation as interpersonal relations are very important ie prayer and service are both needed for fullness of holiness. Life on earth is our specific mission. Holiness is living the ordinary in an extraordinary way; remaining open to supernatural grace and being aware of it; enabling us to do what is impossible by our own nature. The Beatitudes are our guide to holiness. He gave us examples of negative attitudes which are the enemies of holiness.

Silence ended after Holy Mass on the last day and we engaged in lively conversations during breakfast, photo taking and singing hymns. We made our farewells after lunch, spiritually recharged for the year ahead.