Take My Hand; A Personal Retreat Companion
The spiritual life is a mysterious reality. As a child, I recall thinking once that it was so difficult to know how to respond to the call of the spiritual life, especially since no one told you “what it was like.” I thought to myself, “If I ever go there, I will tell others what it is like so it won’t be so difficult for them.” In later years, of course, I discovered that there are indeed a whole host of friends on the journey who are willing to tell you “what it is like.”
The call to conversion is a daily call. It is in the midst of life itself that we encounter God and come to understand His will for us. Take My Hand is an invitation to unpack the meaning of the expressions of Faith that were learned by rote and to discover their hidden depths. You are invited to come to know something of your own spiritual journey while you are on the way.
As Take My Hand calls to mind particular Biblical figures, you will meet some old friends. Implicit is the invitation to get to know them better. Citations and footnotes offer details concerning where you can find them (their Scriptural “address”), but the encounter and the reflections offered take you to a deeper way of knowing. Many questions that arise in the midst of the topics discussed jump right off the page and into your heart.
The objective of meditation is to come closer to God; to come as close to God as possible during this life. The reflections in Take My Hand are intended to help you read, meditate, and grow a little each day. Anyone can use Take My Hand as a guide for making a personal retreat wherever they may be; whether at home or even on a business trip. It was not written with any presumptions of prior theological education.
So, what is an at-home retreat? An at-home retreat is a self-directed period of prayer and reflection undertaken to gain a more intimate relationship with God. It is often difficult to do this without guidance. Proper guidance can come through a spiritual director or can be a written guide such as this book. There is no set length for how long an at-home retreat should be or must be, or how time must be spent each day in the retreat activity. You could decide to devote an hour a day for a week, a month or a year. You may also decide to visit a retreat center for a week or a weekend with Take My Hand as your companion. The retreat should be undertaken in measured steps. Reflection on the reading is the key to success. It is better to find a quiet place to read a little each day and reflect much on what has been read, than to read voraciously and not have time to meditate on or contemplate what has been read. It is also a good practice to engage in the retreat with notebook and pen always handy so that thoughts which come to you during periods of reflection can be captured immediately. It is also advisable to have a bible handy in order to read and reflect on the references included.
The purpose of Take My Hand, therefore, is to offer guidance for those going through deeper discovery of God and their relationship with God. The objective is for you to attain a loving intimacy with God himself. In the process, you will not only come to know God better, but yourself as well, for self-knowledge and humility are both key elements of spiritual progress. You are the explorer. Along the way, you will capture a heavenly storehouse of treasures to hold in your heart. These treasures form the basis for the growth of your soul in God, and of the predominance of God in your soul. As this happens, you become one with Him, just as Jesus asks of us in the gospel. God is always calling us back from the death of sin. In the gospel of Mark, we read the account of the cure of Jairus’ daughter. This little girl was dead, and Jesus brought her back to life. He called out to her, “Talitha cumi”, rise up and live, and held out His hand for her to take. Listen, now, in the quiet of your soul as He calls you. Reach out to Him and respond as He says to you “Take My Hand."