Asking the Clergy: What are the spiritual benefits of going on retreat?

Retreats are brief getaways at which members of religious communities gather for prayer, introspection and other activities in a peaceful environment away from workaday lives. This week’s clergy discuss how a retreat — either with a group or in solitude — can help the faithful reflect and reconnect with their spiritual side.

Panna Shah

Member, Long Island Multi-Faith Forum

Taking time to go on a spiritual retreat and leave behind day-to-day worldly issues provides an opportunity to reconnect with our inner self, as well as with others, in a serene atmosphere. It helps one to realize the truth of their being and the essence of their existence. Jain retreat is an opportunity to live spiritually with like-minded souls in total harmony with each other and with surroundings. It promotes feelings of friendship, compassion, appreciation and equanimity. Retreats can be personal, during special life challenges or in groups to discover peace within. Retreats can be at home by fasting, meditation, prayer and scriptural reading or at a peaceful outdoor space in a group seeking inner awareness. Each year, Jains observe Paryushan (coming closer) for eight days to enhance self-control and self-introspection. During this time, the entire Jain community strives for virtues such as self-control, kindness, honesty, purity, truthfulness, and restraint of desires, austerity, renunciation and charity. Live and let live is emphasized. Coming closer also encourages us to look at our faults or shortcomings. Spiritual enhancement is achieved through activities such as dietary restraints and fasting, meditating and prayers, asking forgiveness from all living beings and destroying our inner enemies including anger, greed, ego and deceit. The only way to change our world is to change. Individual or group retreats help us to reconnect with and find our inner self and truth.

The Rev. Brian C. Barry

Assistant to the rector, St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, Sayville

‘But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” (Luke 5:15-16) In this passage, even when Jesus was going about the important work of healing the sick, he took time alone to pray. Christians are called to look at this and remember that we are not expected to work any harder, or be any “better” than our teacher. If Jesus needed to get away from the chaos of the world to be alone with his Father in Heaven, we too ought to consider what can be gained from withdrawing from the world. The world is no less busy than it was 2,000 years ago. Sometimes, it feels like all of creation is screaming at us. Work, emails, text messages and social media are ceaselessly seeking our undivided attention. What, then, would it be like to simply disconnect for a few days? When we go on retreat, we are taking time away from the chaos of our lives to recharge our likely depleted batteries. We are invited to remember that nothing is so important that we cannot take time to care for ourselves. Finally, when on retreat, we can take a much-needed look within to listen to our own hearts without all of the screaming distractions of the world. Like Jesus, we may just find God in the silence of our own hearts.

Bhavani Srinivasan

Board member and Hindu representative, Long Island Multi-Faith Forum

Many Americans step off the hectic grid of unending emails, WhatsApp messages, phone calls and television to go on a retreat. Retreats are a means to look within and find our inner selves, and to nourish that oft-forgotten inner being in a comforting, undemanding routine. We learn to appreciate what we are and what we have. The attraction is the subtraction of unending hustle and hassle — a digital detox, if you will. Even a small dose of time off the grid can be tranquilizing and lifesaving. Spiritual retreats are like giving cool water to a thirsty soul. We unblock our energy pathways and, in doing so, we appreciate nature’s intelligence, find our true nature and pure consciousness. Hinduism believes that spiritual development occurs across many lifetimes as the soul is eternal, and goals should match the state of development of the individual. By going on a spiritual retreat — either on your own or with like-minded individuals — you can gain a greater sense of happiness and enthusiasm, reduce your stress, increase confidence, experience more ease in interpersonal skills and enhance your creativity. You regroup, rethink and refresh yourself. The result? You can be beautiful on the outside and radiant on the inside. You are not just living; you are thriving.