Just about the time I wanted to learn how to give a retreat, I learned of a Retreat House in Berchtesgaden that was used by soldiers of the U.S. Army in Germany. They held Three Day Retreats for Catholics which alternated with Three Day Retreats for Protestants. I was fortunate to be able to arrange to spend a month there learning how to give retreats. It was a graced period of time for me as both chaplains were experienced retreat givers and gave me a lot of their time, helping me to trace the path of a retreat which those soldiers would travel in their journey to God. I came to appreciate how the Protestant Chaplain was able to preach the Gospel to a group made up of so many different traditions. In fact I never missed his opening talk so well did he introduce these young men to Christ and his message.
One such evening he looked into my room after his opening talk, and smiling broadly, told me he had just saved me from being beaten up. Seeing my alarm he explained that three angry soldiers had come to him after the talk to say that the Catholic chaplain – me – had been at the talk; they had assumed I had been there to jeer. I think he quite surprised them by saying I was a friend of his who came regularly to his talks. They had left but still appeared unconvinced.
So you can imagine my feelings the next morning when they came to visit me. They still wondered why I went to the retreat talk, but they did not appear quite so militant. They sat down, and we talked. In fact they came every day at the time of the talks and we talked about Christ and his message. I was to learn that they did not much appreciate the Protestant Chaplain, but accepted me, as they had never seemed to understand before that other Christians believed in Christ and modelled their lives on his. Their faith took on a whole new dimension as we talked, and I smiled that I who had come here to learn how to give a retreat, was in fact giving my first retreat and to a group of fundamentalist Protestants who had been pretty hostile to Catholics.
It was the Protestant Chaplain who explained that I must become sensitive to how God works in the retreat situation. Utterly unpredictable as it was, it was God’s way of reaching these three young men. And he explained that I needed not have worried that I was as yet unprepared to give a retreat, because it is God who gives the retreat and moves the hearts of those who attend.