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That was our Christchurch retreat at St Bede’s College.
The cost for a 2 day Spa in the world would be costly but the cost to those that attended the Dove retreat and felt the extreme unction of the Holy Spirit pouring into them was priceless. At the last session on Sunday afternoon we were gleaming!
Thank you Helen Funnell, our national leader , for not following the planned sessions but hearing form God’s Holy Spirit and allowing His sovereign rule to minister in a new way. Restrictions were lifted and the only time we had to keep to, were the meals and Holy Mass Saturday morning.
As a beauty therapist of many years I have always enjoyed retreats and have thought they were just as rewarding to attend as going to a spa for R&R, but none had gone as deep as our September retreat.
Christchurch Dove knew there was more happening this September as we had been praying Ephesians 3:14-21 (New Living Translation)
Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
And did this happen as we had prayed! Yes, we really experienced God’s marvelous Love in a new, profound way as our roots went deeper and our souls had a spa treatment like no ordinary one.
Allow me, without being flippant; to describe a facial treatment and compare what happened to our souls at that retreat …
At a spa we go for physical refreshment .a retreat is for spiritual renewal in our inner person, our very soul, which can be neglected and in need of replenishing.
So we began by spending some much needed quiet and not so quiet moments at Jesus feet in Praise and Worship. (This was wonderfully led by our experienced, anointed music team, Val, Wilma and Theresa)
We watched a Louis Giglio’s DVD on Hope when Life Hurts Most.
We heard two touching testimonies of Gods healing love and power.
We gathered in groups of three to listen to each other’s stories of God’s love in our lives especially through coming to Dove. Each of these having merits for our souls.
The Holy Spirit then took us deeper. Fr Jack O’Connor brought in Jesus in the Monstrance. He then accompanied by Helen, brought Jesus to each one of us, stopping and waiting .He and Helen prayed as the Holy Spirit led them for each one of us.
Now the ‘Ephesians 3:14-21 prayer became very real for many of us as we felt the impact of coming face to face with our Creator and of His glorious love He has for each of us. How wide, How long, How deep His love really is. The ultimate spa for the soul!
The Hebrews word for soul is nephesh, it occurs 755 times in the Old Testament, meaning mainly “possessing life”.
On Sunday morning, through the anointing of worship we were encouraged and led to meet Jesus intimately and personally. Our souls were soaking in the Holy Spirit Life and we were experiencing a fullness of His Grace upon us, leaving our hearts and minds revitalized.
The weekend finished with a wonderful celebration of Mass and a very stirring homily from Fr Jack .
We took home from the weekend a soul which had been exfoliated and cleansed, massaged in Holy oil, masked in His love and moisturized with message of His Joy as delight in each one that had “Come Away’ with Him.
Further to the retreat at our next Christchurch Dove meeting we heard personal testimonies of God’s healing at the retreat. Each one different but all telling of how God’s grace falls upon us and touches us where needed.
Thanks to Helen and the National Team for a mightily blessed retreat.
And there’s more….. Yes , we are being taken deeper into our relationship with Jesus , so take up the offer of going to next year’s retreat with full expectation, and set aside the full time required so you don’t miss one minute!. The cost is minimal to the unlimited joy you receive that lasts and lasts.