Beckoned by God, a group of eight women (seven lay and one religious sister) earth-sojourners responded to the call to “come and savour” God’s love (Jn 3:16), life-giving water (Jn 4:10), and Rûah (John 4:24) in the sacred space of the Laudato sí Retreat with the theme “The Spiritual Path of ‘Oneing’” (Julian of Norwich) from January 5-7, 2023 at Sacred Heart Retreat House in Novaliches.

The threading narrative of the Laudato sí Retreat is “Experiencing God’s healing love as life-giving water through Jesus’ death and resurrection for the indwelling God-with-us enables us to attain love (Contemplatio ad Amorem) through God’s Rûah of interconnectedness/one-ing who raises us up as new persons with a New Earth and a New Creation.”

Dr Pinky Valdes focused the first Jewel, God ‘s love, as the divine healing power that culminates in the journey of seven sacred steps. God’s love purifies us of the barriers and clutters in our being/heart in order to save humankind from self-destruction and devastation of the Earth-community. 

Water, as the second Jewel, explains Fr Jomari Manzano SJ, binds us into one in God’s Kin-dom which further unites us deeply with the life-giving God, I AM WHO AM, whose creative spiralling power brings forth water (Gen 1:1-3) in creation. In the ritual washing of the feet, each participant bent down to cleanse and kiss the other’s feet, flooding them with the overflowing and self-giving love of God. 

One of the retreatants, after she was guided through a contemplation accompanied by water, said that she had never thought about the significance of an awareness of water. After going through the water meditation, she said that water with its trickling sound will no longer be the same to her eyes, to her ears, to her taste, and to her touch. 

Fr Jojo M Fung SJ focused on Rûah as Jewel three. Conducted outdoors, the exercise enabled the retreatants to experience the Rûah (breath) of God “arising” as “resurrectional power” that recreates each one as a new creature (2 Cor 5:17), together with the earth and creation as New Earth and New Creation (Is 65: 17; Is 66:22; Rev 21:1).  As the Divine One-ing Love in Contemplatio ad Amorem (SE 235-237), God’s Rûah is experienced as an omnipresent, indwelling-resurrecting presence, sacralising and sustaining creation, capacitating each human to respond collectively to the cries of the poor and the earth.

One deeply touching insight came from one of the participants who said, “The human being is the only one who can destroy and disrespect nature among all created beings.” However, she was quick to add, “The earth can well exist even without us!”

For April, the retreat strengthened her relationship with God and helped her to discover how wonderful His love is. “I grasped the gorgeousness of God’s creation and I felt its healing power during the meditation prayer and spiritual conversations… for “Rûah is my energy, power and God’s love.”

Another retreatant, Karen, remarked: “Nature mirrors oneself or one’s emotions…. Nature is there to hold us and help us to see the true reflection of ourselves and God’s great love for us. I learned the purpose of my existence, which is to share God’s compassion for and through His creation.”

For Ria: “It is good to remember one’s place in creation–how we are all interconnected and responsible for each other. I felt God’s love for me and everything on this earth.”

Riza said: “I was able to reflect on how accepting God’s love is the start of accepting all of creation. I was given the opportunity to discover my real home. I have wounds that were healed by embracing the trees, by talking to turtles, cats, sheep, by cleaning my own body using either cold or hot water. I pondered how we need each other as we are interconnected wherever we may be on this earth, we are ONE.”

Last of all, Rae averred: “We were able to soak and bask in God’s love and magnificence, to feel within our bones the reality of transcendence and eternity as experienced through the Spirit-filled Earth and Cosmos. I was able to experience how Love would do everything for each of us to come home. To accept this love is to mirror the Lover–all at the right time.”