Healing Retreats Bring Light of Hope to Circumstances

Editorial Note: This article on the Jubilee Year of Hope looks at the important role of healing in staying on the path as pilgrims of hope.

During this Jubilee Year of Hope people may abandon their journeys or wander off because of the need for healing. Defeatist thoughts such as, "I can't," "This situation (or person) will never change," and "I need a quick fix" can lead them into being spiritually stuck. Spiritual direction and healing retreats can help these people break through such barriers to freedom.

"We find that (healing) retreats are like a hospital because people come forward with a wide variety of wounds," said Janet Constantine, a mental health counselor and spiritual director. "Some people have abuse wounds, raised in alcoholic homes, or have sexual trauma backgrounds."

Other retreatants are battling addictions or have loved ones struggling with addictions, are worried about their children, or may be going through a divorce, for example.

To help people who are looking for assistance and a touch of God's grace in their circumstances, Constantine and Father Bill Henry will present a retreat Sept. 12–13. The event will take place at the Catholic Life Center in Baton Rouge. 

Father Henry is an Ignatian and inner healing retreat presenter and spiritual director of the Marian Servants of the Eucharist, the sponsors of the event. Constantine is also an instructor of healing prayer at the School of Spiritual Direction in Clearwater, Florida.

"One of the things in our program that we talk about is the idea of hope," said Father Henry. "People move on from being stuck in their way of life to freedom.   

"We basically use the teachings of the church.   We start with God's love and mercy, then we go into forgiveness. We offer some stories of God's mercy and forgiveness."

Constantine said, "One of the basics of our retreat, which is the foundation of hope, is that things will change in an encounter with God's love through reconciliation. We look at our human weakness, our woundedness."

At the Baton Rouge retreat, Father Henry and Constantine will teach about the cycle of the spiritual life, which includes purgation, illumination, and unification.

When people enter their suffering with Jesus, he transforms their lives through their circumstances as they develop a deeper unity with the Lord, according to Constantine.

Father Henry and Constantine instruct attendees on the difference between human weakness, woundedness, and sin.  

"We look at human weakness and woundedness and where that comes from. Then we know if we willfully and pridefully act on those wounds and separate ourselves from each other, from God,” Constantine said. "That gets us on the road to being stuck and (spiritually) sick."

About 15 years ago, Father Henry rhetorically asked Constantine about why people confess their sins and return 30 days later and confess the same sins.

"She said, 'Because they don't know how to get into their woundedness because they 'medicate' their woundedness with sin,'" Father said.

Constantine noted, "We start with entering into God's love – that he loves you right where you are and enter into a deeper understanding of your circumstances. And then being ministered to in those circumstances, not only through God's love through Scriptures, prayer, through compassion, but also through reconciliation."

Throughout the retreat people go through the cycle of bringing problems they are suffering with, then experiencing illumination and understanding. The net result is that they increase their connection to God, which itself is hope, according to Father Henry and Constantine.

"We've seen miracles. We've seen all types of spiritual change. It's phenomenal," said Father Henry. "We follow that by really opening people up to the gifts of the Holy Spirit."

For more information and to register for the retreat, email [email protected] or visit divineprovidence.org/oftheeucharist.