The greatest gift I received this weekend was being a first hand witness to my mother’s very first ‘mountain top experience’. She is 65 years old and had never been on a retreat. She came on this retreat to appease me. 😉 I left her alone so the HOLY SPIRIT could do the work.
As mentioned in my previous post, there is not much that I can divulge about the weekend because it is sacred. I know many can’t stand this response. There are two reasons why information isn’t given. The sacredness is that this is my mom’s personal experience with God, it is not my place to mention what I witnessed or what she shared. If you know her I’m certain she’ll tell you. 🙂 Second, the actual retreat is like watching a movie you’ve never seen before but heard it is one of the greatest you’ll ever see and it won every category at the Academy Awards. If I were to tell you the generality of the retreat, it would be like giving away the entire movie plot!
If your interest is piqued then do yourself a favor and sign up for the next ACTS retreat at your local or neighboring parish. 🙂
One aspect I will share is how faithful God is to swarm in and move mountains once we give him the control. There was something very heavy on my mother’s heart when she entered the first evening of the retreat. She confided in me and being her daughter the situation that was eating away at her motherly emotions made me angry. I knew I was too close. What better place for her to be than surrounded by women of all ages, some who certainly have gone through similar trials and could pray with her and offer her what she needed in that moment. The pieces had already been set in place. God gave my mother exactly who she needed to talk to this weekend. I was there for her as much as a daughter could be but it was encouraging to see the community instantly embrace her and be the arms, hands and heartbeat of God to my mother over the course of this weekend. By the end of the retreat the stress had literally melted off of her face and you could almost see the light of Christ luminating from within her being.
The situation never went away, she has to go back home to it today, BUT she has given up the reigns to God so there is no more fear. This is the gift. Even when we are on a mountaintop experience we are going to continue to have to walk through the fire but when we have that experience to dip into we are then layered in the protective armor of God.
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
Ephesians 6:11
Blessings
Shannon