Hold
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The Handmaids Enrichment Retreat 2 has for its rationale the continuing call to each
Handmaid for a better understanding and appreciation of God's plan for each person, and
for an ever deepening relationship and union with Jesus Christ.
HER 2 has the same elements as HER 1: prayer, teachings, discussion groups, action
planning, fellowship and the Eucharistic celebration. There are four talks, after each of
which the participants will meet in groups of 4-5 to discuss and pray about specific
aspects of their Christian lives that they need to work on. Discussion starters are
provided at the end of each talk.
At the end of Talk No. 4, each participant is invited to make personal resolutions that will
allow her to refocus her life towards Jesus Christ, and then share these resolutions with
the other members of her discussion group.
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SUGGESTED SCHEDULE
Day One
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Handmaids Enrichment Retreat 2
Objectives: 1. To appreciate the fact that once God's love has touched our lives, we
cannot remain unchanged.
2. To realize that God continues to lead us into an ever deepening
relationship with Him.
3. To realize the importance of seeking the will of God in everything we do.
INTRODUCTION
1. We have started to see the world and ourselves with spiritual eyes. We have started to
appreciate that God has called each one of us to Himself individually and personally,
each in our own way according to the circumstances of our lives.
2. We have also started to appreciate that God truly has a plan for all humanity, a plan of
love and grace.
a. To make us all His sons and daughters. (Eph 1:5 Because of His love. God had
already decided that through Jesus Christ. He would make us His sons - this was
His pleasure and purpose.
b. To bring all creation together under Christ. (Eph 1:10 This plan, which God will
complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in
heaven and earth, with Christ as Head.
3. As women, we have been created with particular strengths and abilities to help bring
about this plan of God. Our call to holiness consists in our seeking to conform to the
will and plan of God.
We now know that holiness is being set apart for God, for His use, to do His work,
His will, to bring about the coming of the kingdom of God into our particular
situations.
1. For many of us, God's call has been step by step. As we slowly surrender our lives
to Him, He leads us slowly forward a deeper relationship with Him. He unfolds
His plan for us as we seek to serve Him and to do His will.
2. We need to be in close touch with the mind of God through prayer and Scripture.
When we allow God to transform our minds, this will help us discern the will of
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God (Rom. 12:2 Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good
and pleasing and perfect.)
3. The essence of holiness is uniformity to the will of God. (1 Thes. 4:3 This is the
will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality. . .) (John 6:40 For
this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.)
In the Our Father, the prayer Christ Himself taught us, we pray always that God's
will be done.
4. Seeking the will of God in our lives will make us pleasing and in God's eyes.
1. We make decisions everyday. Some are fairly inconsequential (what to wear, etc),
some are far-reaching (what career to take, etc), and many in between God's will
for us could be clouded by:
2. It is a misconception to think that when things are not going well, you are not in
accordance with God's will (I am being punished). Or that if everyone is doing it,
it must be God's will. Or that God has a will for big decisions only, and not for
our little everyday decisions.
For a big decision, it would be wise to discuss the matter with an elder or
someone with wisdom, like your household/unit head, chapter head or a parent.
This is called having a co-discerner.
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III. CONCLUSION
We can be joyful, whatever happens to us, because we know that all things that God
allows in our lives can be for our good. (Rom. 8:28) We know that God's generosity
cannot be outdone. We can respond with trust and confidence, for sure He will be with us
with every step we take.
In seeking the will of God, we have the example of Jesus Christ in the Garden of
Gethsamane. (Mt. 26:39) He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying "My
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as You will.")
We are all assured of Christ's joy and peace when we try to conform our lives to the will
of God. We are also assured of this when we accept the circumstances of our lives as
coming from His hands.
DISCUSSION STARTERS:
1. Share the situation in your life now which you believe is God's will for you.
2. Do you believe that this situation is the best for you?
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Handmaids Enrichment Retreat
Objectives: 1. To accept and appreciate that God has created woman with special
strength and abilities needed by the world complementary to man.
2. To look towards Mary as our model for the true woman of God.
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Women all over the world are striving, amid confusion, struggle and difficulty, to
understand who they are and how they are to live. So many things are being said
about the role of women today. Many issues are being raised about her identity and
individuality.
2. Women, like men, possess the dignity of being persons and of being children of God.
Women are called to bring to the family, to society, and to the Church, characteristics
which are their own and which they alone can give: their gentle warmth and untiring
generosity, their love for detail, their quick-wittedness and intuition, their simple and
deep piety, their constancy. . .
Her maternal instincts make her gentle and patient in the home, and at the same time
give her courage and strength when a loved one is threatened. Her endurance allows
her to work untiringly and unselfishly.
3. Side by side with her brother in Christ, she can show a confused world that it is
possible to live - not competing for a distorted sense of power - but in cooperation
with men who will love, esteem and respect her for who God made her to be.
The dignity of woman lies not in uniformity to man, or imitation of his way of doing
things. Christian woman must fully show their God-given femininity and embrace
the vocation of imaging God as women.
Mary, the mother of our Lord, shows us what real womanhood and femininity is all
about. God designed Mary to be perfect, bearing no mark of sin for the special role of
His mother. She embodies how God meant woman to be.
a. A woman conceives life. She carries the child in her womb for nine months. She
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nourishes life when the child is born. This is a task no man can accomplish.
b. She must also bring a deeper, spiritual life to all she comes in contact with (all her
relationships). We live in a world with so much discouragement, failure, sin, and
women can stress the importance of love and life - like Mary did. Life is not
things, life is people.
c. A good relationship with God makes us peaceful with every aspect of our lives. It
means always praying and surrendering parts of our lives to Jesus. When our
relationship with Jesus is good, we acquire a certain glow that cannot be achieved
by a good hair style, great make up or even a perfect outfit.
d. As women who have experienced God's love, we need to reflect this in the way
we look and how we act, so that others will be attracted, not to our beauty or poise
but to the God who lives in us and makes our beauty possible. Knowing God
makes us winners in every way and we need to reflect this in what we wear and
how we act.
3. Womanly Presence
a. To be always there - to give life, to care, to love. The Gospels tells is very little of
Mary's accomplishments beyond the fact that she was there. There are no great
deeds, just her presence and that is enough.
b. It is a kind of presence that does not seek any attention for herself, instead always
points to Jesus.
4. Quiet Strength
a. It is a special gift that God gives a woman to remain calm on the outside in the
face of many difficulties. It takes a lot more effort to be quiet and stand back so
that God can do His work. Think of Mary at the food of the cross.
b. Many things can be accomplished by just standing back and being quiet. Many
times this is the best to do yet the most difficult.
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- It takes a lot of strength to wait while God prepares the right situation for you.
- It also takes a lot of strength to do what is right and pleasing to God, in spite of
temptations that come your way.
- It takes a lot of strength to pay special attention to the roles given to us and just do
our jobs the best we can without seeking recognition or commanding any kind of
attention.
CONCLUSION
Satan was able to convince Eve that God was holding back something from her - that
there was a happiness, a power, a worth that God was too stingy and self-serving to give
to her - that there was something lacking which she must obtain for herself. This is the
same message of today's feminists.
Mary, the Mother of God, shows us how blessed we can be when we conform ourselves
to do God's will and to accomplish God's plan for us. Each woman in her own situations
in life, if she is faithful to her divine and human vocation, can achieve true fulfillment of
her own feminine personality. Mary is not only our model, but also our proof, of the
supreme value of a seemingly unimportant life.
DISCUSSION STARTERS:
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Handmaids Enrichment Retreat 2
We live in a world where suffering is real. The world is a painful place to live for many.
Poverty, war, and destruction, injustice, criminality, addiction and vices, rape, and
kidnappings, broken homes, family disputes, competition and self-centeredness are the
common sources of pain, not to mention the many others. Strain in relationships are
common, even at home or even in the Church and community. All of us without
exception have been hurt and we have hurt others, including the people that we love.
Joining Couples for Christ and HOLD has brought us into a deeper relationship with
Jesus and He has helped us to heal and be an instrument of healing others.
Isaiah 58:8 tells us how quickly the Lord heals our wounds. This means to say that if we
turn to Jesus right away with our hurts and pains, then healing will be instantaneous.
However, our human tendency is to dwell on our brokenness and nurse our wounds by
ourselves. We are good at making a record of wrongs and heartaches, rather than reliving
moments of love and joy. The evil one then makes an entrance and pollutes our minds
even more. Wounds are then reopened, causing them to bleed anew.
Psalm 147:3 is what the Lord wants to achieve in us: healing. "He heals the
brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." While the devil want to knock you down, the
Lord snatches us from destruction by His healing grace and power (Psalm 107:20). We
must therefore by actively involved in the spiritual war going on inside us so that Our
Lord Jesus can lead us to victory. Author T. D. Jakes advises us to look at our wounds of
the past like water under your feet when you are standing in a stream; let it pass, let it go
away, never to come back. Here we are again reminded to "forgive and forget".
Success in throwing our past hurts into the ocean of oblivion does not end our bouts of
hurts and pains. Sufferings are likely to be experienced time and again. The capacity to
love is a gift from God; in fact, loving is the reason for living. But love at the same time
is a source of pain. The kinds of pain that love entails are:
1. The pain of losing - as in the case of a widow, or anyone losing a loved one by
death
2. The pain of separation, as in the divorced or separated woman; includes the
wives of overseas workers temporary separation from the husband.
3. The pain of rejection, as maybe felt by the unmarried woman who has not yet
fully grasped the Lord's plan on her singleness.
4. The pain of misunderstanding, as in the husband and wife.
5. The pain and disappointment of expectations unmet, as in the case of the aged
parents who are expecting love and care from their children at the sunset of
their lives. This kind of pain is also experienced in community.
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Feelings of guilt are also sources of pain. One makes a wrong choice or a mistake in the
past, for which one cannot forgive herself, especially when the consequences ruined her
life. Here we must turn to our compassionate Father, slow to anger, abounding in mercy
and love. (Psalm 103:9, 13)
In all of these heartaches, wounds and bruises, our loving Savior awaits to heal us.
1 Peter 2:24, "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that free from sin,
we might live in righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."
Matthew 4:24, "His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were
sick with various diseases and racked with pain and her cured them."
Once again, Jesus is calling us today. He is here to make us whole again through healing
and forgiveness. Let us put all our hurts and pains under His feet. His wounds will heal
us and His blood will wash away the sins and the bitterness of the past.
Let us ask the Lord the grace to surrender to Him all areas of our lives that need healing;
everything, including the dark corners of your life.
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PRAYER FOR HEALING
Lord Jesus, I believe that you are here in our midst right now, with arms
outstretched, ready to embrace me with your love and mercy, with your
strength and power.
Lord, forgive me for the many times I have hurt you by hurting other people.
Forgive the people that caused me hurts and pains, and lead me to be
reconciled with them.
Heal me, Lord, of the remorse and the guilt brought about by my sins and
disobedience to your commands.
Lord, heal the hurts I experienced here in community, the growing up pains,
my wrong attitude towards service, my weak commitment to the life and
mission that you have given me in the Handmaids of the Lord. Bless my
leaders and grant them the strength and perseverance to continue to serve you
in community. Help me to be faithful to the covenant that I made to you
through the Handmaids of the Lord.
Divine Healer, make me more and more like you, wounded on the Cross, dying
in your wounds, but rising up to be an instrument of healing to others. Lord,
lay sown your healing hand on me, and anoint my hands with the power to heal
others too.
This we ask in the holy and mighty name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives
with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
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Handmaids Enrichment Retreat 2
Objectives: 1. To realize that as daughters of a great Father, we are called to live great
and victorious lives.
2. To realize that living in the Holy Spirit will give us the power to live
victorious lives.
I. INTRODUCTION
a. It was in HOLD that God called us to renew our personal relationship with
Him and in HOLD that He calls us to continue to deepen it in holiness. It
was in HOLD that we were introduced to a life in the Holy Spirit with all the
gifts and power that comes with this life.
b. It is in HOLD that God continues to speak to us, to mold us and to heal us.
c. It is in HOLD that we are called to serve Him, through our families, our
sisters in the community, the rest of our circles and all the people that we
meet.
2. In this retreat, we have discussed that as we respond deeper to God's call for
holiness, we need to put on the mind of Christ, so that we can make sure that our
life and our decisions are in accordance with His plan for us. We also look to our
Mother Mary as our model for the true woman of God, bringing our own
femininity to achieve God's plan in our own personal situations,
3. Since our baptism in the Holy Spirit during our CLP, we have been living in the
Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit within us! He gives us the power to be
great! To be victorious! Have we been using this power?
1. The world's definition of "greatness" and "victory" is very different from what
Christ meant it to be. God made us in His image and likeness, and therefore He
made us great like Him. Christ already won the victory for us. We just need to
call on His power for the skirmishes we encounter here on earth, and we know
we can be victorious too.
2. We should be clear about our basic identity. We are daughters of a great Father,
greatness should be very natural for us. We belong to a great community. This is
where we find joy and peace and live our lives with a passion.
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If we live a life of mediocrity, we are not living out our purpose. Our Father has
given us all the privileges in life, everyday is an opportunity to be great.
3. Vision is what allows us to see how we can live a life of greatness. It gives us a
sense of purpose, passion and zeal. People who don't know the greatness and the
love of God will never realize their own greatness. We will not be happy unless
we realize God's love. If we do not love, we will not be great.
Our identity is that we are daughters of a great Father. Our nature is to live
for God. If we don't live our lives according to the way God wants us to live,
we are not living at all. We need to grow in conviction about this basic
reality, or we will be living a life of confusion. If we live of conviction, other
people will gravitate towards the light.
We forget that God will heal us, protect us and provide for us. Let go of pain
and hurts that make us weak and make us live like losers. We need to live in
confidence and trust in a God that loves us, otherwise we will live a life of
timidity, of fear . . . . of weakness.
Let us consider now our whole lifestyle. Each of us has to decide what our top priorities
are going to be, even before you decide what time you are going to get up in the morning
or what you are going to do. Let us see the whole of our life first, and we want to suggest
to you three priorities.
a. There is an old saying "First things first." In Matthew, it is "First thing first!" Mt.
6:33 says "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and these (other) things
shall be added unto you."
We've got to be seekers after Jesus first. Everything else must flow from this first
priority. We must know intellectually and experientially that God is first, and
everything else in our lives must converge at that one point - Christ. That's the
only way we become integrated, focused, whole women. Jesus said, "Any
kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste; and any city or house divided
against itself shall not stand." (Mt. 12:25) Are you divided against yourself?
b. Do we really know God? Paul said to the Philippians "I count all things to
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loss on view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order . . .that I may
know Him, and the power of His resurrection."
(1) Practice His presence. Jesus did! He said in Jn. 14:10 "Do you not believe that I
am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?" Jesus tells us to abide in Him. Live
your life consciously before him, moment by moment.
(2) Jealousy guard your daily prayer time. Jesus did! In Matt. 14:23, He sent
multitudes away - and prayed. This daily quiet time spend alone with God is so
important to getting to know God. Read His word.
(3) Seek the Lord in Holy Mass and the Eucharist. We would like to suggest that we
spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament regularly. Also, as requested by
Mary herself, we suggest the praying of the rosary.
2. Second priority: Commitment to the sisters in the community, and to the bigger body
of Couples for Christ.
St. Paul knew what it was to hold the family of God the highest of all human
relationships. In Philippians 1:7-9, he says "It is only right for me to feel this way
about you all, because I have you in my heart. . . God is my witness, how I long for
you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound
still more and more."
3. Third priority after God and His people: Evangelization. We need to reach out to all
those around us for Christ. We start with our families, our friends, our officemates,
everyone we come in contact with. We need to bring everyone into the love of God
through Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
Do you see how these priorities flow into each other? Unless we are rich with God and
His word, our spiritual lives will be thin and we will have nothing of eternal significance
to contribute to our fellow Christians. And unless we are close to our fellow Christians,
we will have little success in effectively reaching our world around us - even our own
families - for Christ.
Take a good look at your life. Whatever kind of woman you are - wife, mother, career
woman, single parent, widow, wife of an overseas worker, have we got our priorities in
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order? Are we building a life of eternal consequences? A life of greatness, or power, of
victory! A life of joy and celebration!
DISCUSSION STARTERS:
1. Are there parts of my life which need to be refocused or rearranged in order to allow
me to live a life of victory and greatness as a daughter of God?
2. What resolutions can I make to refocus or rearrange my life to achieve the greatness I
was meant to have?
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