Encountering the Ultimate Reality

With the business of everyday life here on the Hilltop, it is far too easy to forget the ultimate reality: God walks with us throughout each step of our lives. When I find myself constantly running around during the day, I often fail to stop and reflect about the greater purposes of that which I am doing. I have frequently found myself going through the motions of my day without considering their broader implications and without taking time to be grateful for my blessings in the present moment. The reason for this is twofold: I, like everyone else, am constantly busy and, unfortunately, I am rarely afforded the opportunity to be alone on this campus.

For these reasons, I feel utterly blessed to have attended the Weekend Ignatian Retreat. Having time to take a step back from the business and routineness of everyday life at Georgetown provides one the opportunity to focus clearly – without distraction – on one’s relationship with God. Over the course of a single weekend, my perspective on the world changed, because I now perceive God not in an abstract sense but rather as a friend, a confidant and a teacher who stands alongside me during each moment of every day. At the retreat, I was blessed with the grace to perceive how actively God plays a role in every aspect of my life.

On another note, the retreat challenged me to understand the nuances between praying and merely saying prayers: prior to the retreat, I had said prayers throughout the entirety of my life merely by rote. During the retreat, I recognized that prayer is about both an experience and a relationship with God. Through prayer, we are called to perceive matters of our lives as God perceives them and even to look at ourselves how God looks at us, which, in my own prayer life, has helped me to grasp that my relationship with God is extremely personal and intimate. In short, the Weekend Ignatian Retreat has helped me to encounter the reality of God’s ever-present role in all that I do and all who I am.

Written by Sterling Lykes COL ’19