By Father Don Farnan on February 20, 2025
This Lent, I will offer some mini retreats for people to reflect upon the most significant issues of life and address topics of death. Utilizing guidance from spiritual directors, life coaches, death duellos, and Catholic traditions, we will spend time discussing how to make the most of what remains of our earthly life, how to plan things that we can control, and how we might surrender to things that we cannot.
Retreats help people gain self-awareness that leads to self-understanding that leads to self-acceptance and self-betterment. We begin by prayerfully assessing our current state of being while discussing our ultimate desired state. By pondering issues like characteristics you inherited from parents or other ancestors, what places, hobbies, interests, and kinds of people you are drawn toward, your positive and negative influences, hurts or losses that cause your restlessness, dreams and aspirations that still remain in you, and instances in which you notice God’s presence in your encounters or in silence, you can gain greater insight into your past, present, and future. By discussing these mysteries within a small group, we find assurances that others grapple with similar matters.
These matters matter because they help us get to the heart of our creation; they deepen our relationship with The Creator; and they help us surrender to our destiny. In short, they help us live and then they help us die. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons once said that the greatest glory we can ever give to God is, while we are alive, to be fully alive. These subjects encourage us to live life to its fullest, while being mindful of our limitations. As our personal limitations increase and our earthly lives diminish, these matters also allow us to age with grace and ultimately assent to death. For it is in dying, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us, that we are born into eternal life.
On the following dates next month, you can join a small group of eight to twelve at my spirituality center to make your Lenten retreat with me and Rhonda Osborn (a life coach, death duello, and spiritual director). Listen to our podcast by clicking here. At the gatherings, we will reflect upon the themes above.
Thursday, March 6, 9-11AM
Thursday, March 13, 1-3PM
Friday, March 21, 9-11AM
Sunday, March 23, 2-4PM
Thursday, March 27, 5-7PM
I hope that one of the times will fit your schedule. To reserve your spot for a session, just let me know by emailing me at frdon@stjkc.org. Send your name, contact information, and preferred date. If you can’t make it work for Lent, there may be other opportunities later in the spring or summer.