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Falling in love with Jesus
June 30, 2010
Annual Retreat – Thursday May 13th – Sunday 16th 2010.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Secular Community, Brisbane
Our annual retreat was again held at the Presentation Retreat Centre at Manly in Brisbane. It is such a beautiful and peaceful setting and our accommodation overlooks Manly harbour. We arrived in time for our evening meal before which we were able to meet and greet with one another. Following our meal, Anne our President, welcomed everyone. Fr. Gerard Moran OCD who assisted us and led us in our retreat, introduced us to the subject of the retreat – “Falling in love with Jesus”
Each day included Morning Prayer at 9 am, Mass at 11.30 am, Evening Prayer at 5.15 pm and Night Prayer at 8.30 pm. On Friday we were blessed to have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 8 pm and on Saturday 1st and 2nd rite of Reconciliation.
Over the time of the retreat Father Gerard took us through steps which began
1. With a girl falling in love with a boy.
2. Her being drawn to him
3. She removes what would make her unsuitable for him
4. She tries to find out all about him
5. She notices in herself love for him.
6. She is drawn to him and wants to be with him and is happy with him.
7. There is delight, peace and joy.
Judgement of value – this is better than anything else. Previous interests take second place.
Clean-up – she removes from herself what would be unsuitable for him
Knowledge – she wants to know all about him and his.
Questioning – she asks is this really true – does he love me?
Willingness – she is ready to leave home and go with him.
These points were then likened to Christian values.
Our weekend was very prayerful and meditative and for my part went too fast.
We thank Fr Gerard for the way he guided us and provided us with much food for thought in our journey of imitating Jesus and bringing our life into conformity with His. We must study His life, know how to imitate Him and behave in all events as He would. We must do this out of love for Him. It is essentially a love story; it involves a journey of the heart – a journey that will ultimately be fulfilled only in possession of the beloved. We are made to seek and search for our hearts desire.
by Leona.
