Join men of St. Gabriel for the annual Men's Retreat.
All men - single, married, widowed, or divorced - are welcome!
The retreat will include times of fellowship, prayer, reflection and recreation.
This year we will have the opportunity to participate in activities such as sports, skeet shooting, axe throwing, hiking, fishing (no guarantees you will catch anything/bring your gear) and a fire pit.
Fr. Paul Kostka and Retired U.S. Navy Seal, Captain John Doolittle, will guide us through a series of talks on the Battle of Prayer as men.
You can learn more about the religious community, Servants of Christ Jesus, Fr. Paul Kostka co-founded here.
You can learn more about Captain John Doolittle here.
Caraway Conference Center
4756 Caraway Mountain Rd
Sophia, NC 27350
$300 due with online registration
Includes single-occupancy room and 5 meals
CLOSED
Do you ever find prayer… difficult? If so, you are by no means alone. C.S. Lewis eloquently sums up what many of us feel about prayer at one point or another:
“Well, let’s now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a crossword puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us. And we know that we are not alone in this.” (C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer)
We may truthfully say that prayer is something simple—a “surge of the heart… a simple look turned toward heaven… a cry of recognition and of love” (St. Therese of Lisieux) or “the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him” (CCC 2565)—but it is by no means easy. Prayer is a battle because it is not only “a gift of grace” but also “a determined response on our part” (CCC 2725). We fight this battle against both our own fallen nature and against the Enemy of our soul, struggling at various times against distraction, dryness, and other difficulties.
These obstacles to prayer can often seem insurmountable. But the Catechism of the Catholic Church outlines three weapons to aid us in fighting the good fight: “to overcome these obstacles, we must battle to gain humility, trust, and perseverance” (CCC 2728).