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Published: July 4, 2023

Young people need silence: What I learned during my 30-day retreat with no noise

By The Editor

Tue Jul 4, 2023 – 6:05 pm EDTTue Jul 4, 2023 – 6:11 pm EDT

(LifeSiteNews) — When I was 18-years-old, I did the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

St. Ignatius wrote the Spiritual Exercises to be read and practiced throughout a 30-day silent retreat. I had no cell phone, internet, TV, or any other kind of distraction. It was just me and Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle for 6 hours daily, and then the four walls of my bedroom at Manresa Jesuit Retreat Centre in Pickering, Ontario.  

Sounds like a crazy thing to do for the modern 18-year-old, and looking back on the experience, it was.

Even my superiors at the seminary informed me afterwards it was too intense for a first-year diocesan seminarian. Later, when I entered religious life, we ate meals in silence as well, and I loved it. But I’m also quite an extrovert and a social individual, so there was an element of struggle associated with the newly imposed practice.  

I’m now 21-years-old, and I think youth these days are infected with a plague of immaturity.

Young people are not

The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at LifeSite News

The views expressed in this news alert by the author do not directly represent that of The Official Street Preachers or its editors


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