There was a time when ‘making a retreat’ was almost exclusively the preserve of priests and religious. At best it entailed a period of rest and recuperation, at worst an endurance test. Reduced to edifying exhortations, the Spiritual Exercises were often made bearable only by the director’s all too rare anecdotes. So much has changed, and for the better. The recovery of original sources has resurrected the true tradition of the Exercises as individually guided. The call to discern the ‘signs of the times’ has given a new dimension to the process of seeking the will of God in solitude. The insights of the human sciences are now recognized as giving the Gospel’s call to holiness a new richness and complexity. No longer is direction a clerical prerogative; many women have found an important new ministry in spiritual and retreat direction. Perhaps most important, the word 'desire' is back on the spiritual map - indeed, returned to the very centre, where it properly belongs. By pointing to the need for discernment of the will of God in some very complex areas, the Spiritual Exercises make a specific and priceless contribution to a process which is open to all Christians—and, indeed, to all people of faith.
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