Spirituality of Stewardship Retreat with Fr. Daniel Mahan

Last week, I was out for a Spirituality of Stewardship Retreat in Tagaytay from August 13-15, 2007. We left Manila for the retreat on August 12, Sunday and were back in Manila on a Wednesday, after a more than 5-hour bus ride.

Retreat master was Fr. Daniel J. Mahan. Fr. Mahan serves as "...Director of Formation for the summer and winter institutes and annual conferences of the International Catholic Stewardship Council (ICSC)..." He is also the author of the book: More than Silver or Gold: Homilies of a Stewardship Priest.

Prior to this retreat, it had been 23 years since I last went on a retreat -- and that had to be while I was still at Poveda in high school. College life (no retreats at UP), raising a family, and corporate life got in the way and the days were so busy that I did not have the time to even reflect for a few days a year.

Now that I stay at home, with more freedom to do as I please, I finally had the chance to spend some time by myself, away from family and work, to focus on the things that matter a lot.

The Spirituality of Stewardship Retreat is about discovering a "way of life" as stewards. All the good that we have in life comes from God. We are blessed, not through our own efforts, but because God is always good and gracious. The retreat will enrich your understanding of what it means to be a steward; what the characteristics of a steward are; and how stewardship, as a way of life, can transform you, your family, your community, and even the world. =)

The retreat will have two more runs in Cebu and Davao City. I would highly recommend this retreat to individuals who would like to find greater meaning in what they do and who would like to learn more about their Catholic faith. Fr. Mahan is a great writer and a powerful speaker. He is sure to enrich your understanding of the Catholic faith with his insights and stories.

The retreat was also a good opportunity for me to meet a lot of wonderful people -- from lay people, to priests, to religious sisters. It was a blessing daily to do our morning prayers with the beautiful singing and music of the nuns; to have 5 priests concelebrate the Holy Eucharist; to eat natural and yummy food prepared by the Carmelite missionaries (more on the Carmelite Missionaries Center of Spirituality in the next few days) and to just be surrounded with so many happy people. I guess when you exert effort to search for or to be found by God, you cannot help but be joyful.

The retreat was organized by Claretian Publications. To Fr. Benedict Dilag, CMF and to the whole group of Claretian who took care of organizing the retreat, our congratulations and thank you for all your work and efforts to give us participants a very meaningful and useful retreat.

To check out the schedules of the next retreats to be handled by Fr. Mahan in Cebu and Davao, you can read our other write-up on the Spirituality of Stewardship Retreats.