“It’s not what you do this weekend that’s important. What’s important is what God does in you.”

Passionist Father David Colhour uses these words in his Friday night orientation to parishioners in the diocese making retreats at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights.

The task during a retreat is not to have tasks. As Father Colhour puts it, retreatants must stop trying to reach God; instead, they must notice that God is reaching them.

Of course, it isn’t easy for most people to shift gears like that — to shift their attention from completing the tasks on their to-do lists to simply experiencing the presence of God in their lives. Yet making that shift is the essence of a retreat.

Passionist Brother Kurt Wernert, retreat director, describes a retreat as a period of quieting down and resting in one’s life, a time when the emphasis is on being rather than doing. “On a retreat, you focus on being present,” he said in an interview with The Herald. “Then you begin to see the ways that God is active in your life.”

Brother Wernert grew up with retreats. He was one of seven children, he explains, whose mother, a widow since 1974, “went on retreat every three months whether she needed it or not.” He laughs as he adds, “and retreats were originally silent.”

Although there are great stretches of silence and reflection during a weekend at Christ the King, the retreats these days are preached retreats. The retreat team of Brother Wernert, Father Colhour and Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Marcella Fabing make several presentations over the course of the weekend, each presentation designed to lead the retreatants deeper into their understanding of themselves and their relationship with God.

The parish retreats are developed around a theme — this year the theme is “I Am Who Am: Delighting in the River of Grace.” Like good preachers, the retreat team carefully arranges presentations and prayer experiences to facilitate a developing, thoughtful receptivity to God.

Sister Fabing, who over the years has served as a teacher and principal in Catholic schools, a diocesan catechetical director and as regional superior of the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet, explains that retreats are only partly instructional. They are more truly experiences of inspirational adult faith formation. Retreats ask people to reflect on what they know.

“God does the work,” Sister Fabing noted. “We are the instruments. We only provide the environment — the structure and setting.”

The Passionists have been providing the structure and setting for retreats at Christ the King for nearly 60 years. Members of the religious order arrived in the Sacramento Diocese in 1945 at the invitation of Bishop Robert Armstrong to establish a retreat center to serve north-central California. A small house was built at the present site and the Passionists took up residence on the last Sunday of November 1949 on the feast of Christ the King.

In those days, the Passionists conducted retreats for men only, and the Sisters of the Cenacle conducted retreats for women. When the Cenacle Sisters had to close their retreat facilities, however, the Passionists made space available to the sisters to conduct their retreats at Christ the King. Later, when the Cenacle Sisters left the area entirely, the Passionists began to provide parish retreats to women as well as men.

Currently there are more women’s retreats than men’s — 12 weekends for women-only retreats and eight for men — as well as a retreat for married couples, Engaged Encounter weekends, a family retreat, an Easter Triduum retreat, a six-day silent directed prayer retreat, and several 12-Step weekend retreats.

There are also spiritual enrichment programs on Scripture and theology, days of prayer during Advent and Lent, an ecumenical evening of prayer for peace, and weekly Masses open to the public.

Like the retreat center offerings, the facilities at Christ the King have also expanded over the years. The center now offers 67 rooms with private baths, a dining room that seats 120, four meeting rooms and a beautiful chapel.

The retreat team provides a range of programs and retreats to meet the needs of the local church, but the core of the retreat center remains the parish weekend retreats. Each parish’s traditional retreat weekends are fixed points on the Christ the King’s calendar. The yearly parish retreat is a powerful complement to the daily spiritual life of the parish.

“A retreat is a special time of reflection and silence,” said Sister Fabing, “but it is silence in community. It is a silence built on opening our minds and our hearts to God in community. It’s wonderful to have that experience among the familiar faces of your faith community.”

2008 programs

• “Living the Year With Matthew.” Wednesdays, 7 to 9 p.m. through Nov. 27.

• “The Experience of God.” Jan. 15 and 22, 7 to 9 p.m.

• “Lenten Day of Prayer.” Feb. 26. 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• “Easter Triduum Retreat.” March 20-23. Thursday 6 p.m. to Easter Sunday, 10 a.m.

• “Understanding Fundamentalism.” April 8, 15, 22 and 29, 7 to 9 p.m.

For reservations and information on retreats or programs at Christ the King Passionist Center, call Margaret Hinshaw at (916) 725-4720, ext. 302, or visit the Web site at www.passionist.org/retreats/christtheking.

Copyright © 2008 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved