When the “Retreat High” Comes to an End

Steubenville Conferences, Kairos, random weekend retreats: I’ve done them all. Every time I come back from one of these super-hyped, life-changing weekends, I experience this mountain-top feeling known as the “retreat high”. This feeling occurs after a weekend of endlessly singing Praise and Worship songs, listening to dozens of motivational talks, and drinking just enough coffee to last a lifetime. We come back from these types of weekends and wonder why no one at church raises their hands during the songs or why the guy from Dunkin’ Donuts frowned when handed a purity card. When experiencing this spiritual high, we may also be put under the impression that our life will be easy from this point forward and that nothing bad will ever happen.

It Never Lasts 

Unfortunately, the “retreat high” always comes to an end. As much as we would like this good feeling to last forever, there comes a point when our life goes back to normal and the mundane, routine of the daily grind hits us hard in the face. We may begin to find it difficult to pray, difficult to feel God’s presence, and difficult to be as happy as we once were. It may seem as if we have lost the spiritual tools gained on the retreat.  Of course, we have been changed by the experience, but we may not feel as good as we did on the retreat. We can be left feeling depressed. Personally, I remember feeling defeated, as if my faith life was somehow not as good as it once was.

This mindset of defeat put me in danger of believing that my faith in Christ is based on emotions. I began to believe that since I am not as happy as I was on the retreat, my faith life must be suffering. Since I was not feeling as “on top of the of the world”, I thought that I must be doing something wrong. I failed to recognize that faith is not based on an emotional experience. I began to believe that I must be happy 24/7 in order to have a successful faith life. I reduced my faith to an experience.

Faith is Not a Feeling 

Eventually, I began to realize that faith is not simply the sum of an emotional experience. After a while, I realized that true faith requires hard-work and diligence. I began to recognize what it truly means to be a Christian. I came to the conclusion that although living a life with Christ is not always easy, it is definitely worth the effort.

I also realized that faith should not be based on a nice feeling; it involves believing in a God who will not fail us, even when everything comes crashing down. I learned that we cannot call ourselves Christians simply because we have encountered Christ in a powerful way. Rather, we must use this powerful encounter to make a radical change in our lives, which can allow us to follow Christ more closely. We must be Christians in our word and in our actions. We should be living Christ on a daily basis (not just once a year on a retreat!) by constantly striving to be like to Him. Saint Francis DeSales has called us to “live Jesus” in our lives. This means radiating Christ in all we do, so that we may allow others to encounter Him through our lives and actions.

Retreats are Like Greenhouses

Recently, I attended a five-day conference for college students in San Antonio, Texas. The conference was called SEEK, and it was put on by FOCUS, which is a Catholic organization aimed at evangelizing the Faith to college students. On the last night of this conference, a talk was given by Fr. Mike Schmitz of Ascension Press titled “More Than Words”. In this talk, he spoke about how living the Faith should not be reduced to a life-changing conference we have attended. He made a comparison between these types of conferences and greenhouses, which are indoor environments that grow plants so that they can eventually be uprooted and planted in another environment.

“This week is a greenhouse,” he said. “But you realize that you’re not meant to live in a greenhouse….This time in a greenhouse is meant to grow you so that you can be planted anywhere….We are meant to live in the wild….The reason that we have this awesome environment is to live in any environment.” Fr. Mike’s talk reminded me of the true purpose of a spiritual retreat, which is to strengthen our faith life so that we may be able to face the real world with confidence.

Although attending a spiritual retreat or conference is in and of itself a very beneficial thing to do, I believe that many of those who attend are put in danger of reducing their faith to that experience of the “retreat high”. The purpose of a retreat is to be a kickstart to a newfound faith or a refresher to an already established faith life. After the retreat, God may bring us through times of spiritual dryness so that we can experience an even greater consolation. Without times of darkness, we would never be able to recognize times of joy. We need retreats. We need spiritual experiences. But we are not supposed to live off of them.