“Repent, says the Lord; the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” A retreat is a wonderful opportunity to escape from the busyness of life and enter into the sacredness of silence and encounter Christ on his journey to Jerusalem and our journey from repentance to holiness. Retreating is an opportunity to look at where we have been, determining the wrong turns we have taken and in prayer, ask the Lord for strength, healing and guidance. One of my favorite books to take on retreat is “Journal of a Soul” by Pope Saint John XXIII. It captures the spiritual development of his prayer life and his own journey to holiness. It is a beautiful example of the process a person goes through in turning away from the things that cause us to sin and turning towards the Way of the Lord, mainly following the Lord’s commandments of love and forgiveness. Over time, John XXIII developed a deeply disciplined prayer life grounded on Christian virtues. He celebrated the Sacrament of Penance regularly because he said that even the slightest sin causes a ripple effect to the entire Body of Christ. The Spiritual Father’s described the process to holiness as a journey up a mountain where the bottom is the starting point or the beginning of life and the top represents our end, our goal, which is being reunited with God, our Father. This requires us to go through a purification process whereby we are aware of our sinfulness and through prayer, faithfulness and perseverance, we separate ourselves from worldly things such as materialism, pride, noise, selfishness and we seek and attach ourselves to heavenly things in order to ascend to the top of the mountain where God awaits us with open arms and a loving embrace. Like any journey, we have to plan for the trip by determining how to arrive to our final destination and what is needed for the trip.  We want to travel light but sin weights us down; it becomes excess baggage. The Good News is that we have the Sacrament of Penance to help us lighten the load. What a gift it is to experience the Father’s love and mercy. It is like that journey of ascending to the mountain. We are once again reunited to the Father through the sacrificial love of Jesus on the Cross. We begin this process by examining our conscience to identify any hurts we might have caused. Have there been situations of greed, pride, envy, anger, lust? Have you offended your spouse, parents, siblings, neighbor, enemy, friends? With a contrite heart, ask the Lord for mercy, forgiveness, healing, peace. It’s a great way to repent and return to the Lord.