Women's Emmaus Retreat

If there is an Emmaus retreat for women in your area, you may want to consider going. The care and concern of the women who put on the retreat was a reflection of Christianity at its best.

It is impossible to describe the event for two reasons:

1. To protect the confidentiality of women who opened their hearts and shared intimate details of their lives, retreatants are asked to never disclose what was spoken about.

2. To describe the programming would be to ruin the experience for future retreatants, who will enjoy it more if it is a surprise, and if they approach the experience without preconceptions.

I went because I wanted to be closer to Jesus, who is a hard figure for me. One of the reasons he is a hard figure is that so many non-Christians have suffered so much at the hands of Christians. I don't blame Jesus personally, but this history has made me reluctant to embrace his religion.

During the retreat, I suddenly remembered a line from T.S. Eliot's quartet "Burnt Norton" about the boars and boarhounds, natural enemies, becoming reconciled in the stars. From there, I remembered the verse in Colossians, 1: 20, I believe, about Jesus reconciling all things in himself through his death on the cross.

This was a passage that spoke to my sense of remorse about the many sins and failures of my life and gave me hope that God, in his mercy, will reconcile all of this in some way I don't understand.

The other part of the retreat I liked was that I discussed my doubts about Jesus and, quite randomly, received a verse about receiving whatever I pray for if I have faith. I have a big dream for a way of helping troubled young people and need major funding. This has given me enough encouragement to seek this type of assistance