One of the best strategies of victory for soldiers at war is retreat. They retreat to re-enforce and regain focus. Retreat/recollection, as it pertains to the spiritual life, means focusing attention to the presence of God in the soul, which necessarily demands the withdrawal of the mind from external and earthly affairs in order to attend to God and Divine things. It is the same as interior solitude in which the soul is alone with God – “Alone with none but Thee my God.” The silence and serenity that often pervade the atmosphere of the seminary at this period of the month cannot but lead one to a union with the divine. If only our world could learn and appreciate the value of silence.

Spiritual formation is one of the non-mutually exclusive four areas of priestly formation. In the effort to uphold the holistic formation of future priests in this significant time in their life, the Seminary of Saints Peter and Paul, Bodija, Ibadan organizes for her seminarians a monthly recollection every first Sunday of every month beginning from the evening of the previous Saturday after compline to the following Monday after the morning Mass. This monthly recollection is one of the various programs set up in the area of spiritual formation. This period refreshes and revitalizes seminarians, giving them the opportunity to spend more time in personal prayer and contemplation, in order to rekindle and deepen their relationship with God.   It is an opportunity to hear more clearly, God’s call and to attain a degree of spiritual renewal.

For November 2018, the recollection was facilitated by one of the Spiritual Directors - Rev Fr. Joseph Young Aniaga. The recollection was organized in three sessions.

Two talks were given. The first talk was titled CO-OPERATING WITH GOD: HOW CAN I REPAY THE LORD FOR HIS GOODNESS TO ME? Reflection on this topic was based on 1Corinthians 15:51-57

God has a good plan for you, he is the master planner, He knows the future, he is aware of the beginning. He is only requesting for our co-operation. John 3:16 expresses His unending love for us. But, how can we repay the lord for His goodness to us? The best way we can appreciate God for His faithfulness to us is for us to seek holiness and purity of heart, doing the will of God, and walking in His presence. We must constantly seek direction from God, and when we do this, He will lead us to take the right path. We cannot direct ourselves, we must allow Christ to direct us; so that we would not stumble or be frustrated. When we allow the Lord to direct us, we would never cease to see His powerful hand in our dealings in life. It becomes very important therefore, to always make our lord Jesus Christ happy. We must keep appreciating the goodness of the lord, by doing little ordinary things in an extra-ordinary way. In co-operating with the Lord, we must be aware that challenges and trials will come our way, but if we place our trust in the lord, He will help us to overcome them. Jesus co-operated with God, whenever He faced challenges, saying “not my will but, your will be done”. There is a need therefore to look up to God, to depend on Him.

The second talk which focused on our OPENESS TO GOD IN SINCERITY OF PURPOSE is a reflection on the life of Joseph in Genesis 37:5-24. Fr. Joseph calls the seminarians to reflect on the three P’s in Joseph’s life – Pit, Portiphar’s House and Prison. There is a great difference between the pit and a House. As in the case of Joseph, the pit was a place of death but Portiphar’ house was a place of light, he left the pit but now in Portiphar’ house which was a preparation for the palace life. The devil wanted to seize the destiny of Joseph through Portiphar’s wife but the devil failed; for when Joseph’s love of God and refusal of the advances of Portiphar’s wife landed him in prison, God proved that for those who love Him, all things work together unto good (Romans 8:28). When we face challenges and temptations, the Lord himself will create the way out for us, if we can trust Him by doing His will irrespective of the threat that is put against us. Do not give up trusting in God.

But, this was not what Joseph achieved at go, it must has been a constant practice of virtues he had accustomed himself to. So there is the need to pay attention to what is on our tables, what we feed our souls with or what makes us happy. Just as the food we eat is a strong determinant of our health status, so also what we feed our souls with is a strong determinant of our spiritual health. You cannot feed your soul with all sorts of sexual immorality and expect that when temptation of such nature comes your way, you will overcome. So, we must watch what we feed on, if not they can take us away from God. We must therefore, feed on things that are godly in order to better stimulate our spiritual life in our relationship with God.

We should never forget that we are humans and we have weaknesses; that is why we must depend daily on the grace of God not on our own wisdom and talent. We are all product of grace. St. Paul admonishes us in 1Corinthians 10:12 that those who think they are strong should take heed lest they fall. According to one Chinese man called Yun, we must realize that “it is not great men who change the world but weak men in the hand of a great God”. We must always humble ourselves before God and ask him for direction. God is great, for He uses humble men to accomplish his purpose. May the seminarians (formatees) relish the grace of monthly recollection for deep and sincere spiritual growth.