Charis Ministries has been a gift in my life for six years!  Not only is it where I work, but it is a ministry that reaches thousands of young adults across the country through the eight retreats we have for organizations to offer to men and women in their 20s and 30s. After working with teams of young adults offering nine retreats to young adults in both Louisiana and Georgia, I believe firmly in the impact these retreats have in young adults lives.

For our quarterly newsletter, I wrote an article titled, “Retreats and Storytelling”.   One of the gifts of a Charis Retreat to a young adult is the fact that it provides an opportunity for the retreatant to tell his/her story and connect it to our larger faith story.  Here is a piece of the article:

“We all have encounters with Mystery in our lives.  We all have stories to tell that speak to the immense longing we feel in our lives—the longing for hope, the longing for a deep relationship, the longing for conversion, the longing for transformation.  There are moments in our lives that capture the essence of the immense longing we feel—an authentic friendship, the birth of a child, a life-giving job, a moment of clarity during discernment, a moment in nature that is bursting with the reality of God’s hand in creation, hope we find during a loss or transition.  These moments make up our faith story, whether they are the small day-to-day events of our lives or whether they are larger moments in our personal history.  To understand the power and depth of these sacramental moments requires a sense of awareness and an opportunity to put language to our encounter with Mystery.”

For the full article, go check out Charis’ Website! 

What is my personal faith story?
How does it connect to our larger faith story?

Becky Eldredge

Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.