The retreats that Listening Inn design are somewhat different though may have certain similar components of other kinds of “retreats.” We do need to retreat physically away from the norm of busyness and demanding lifestyle and to run away from facing one’s life challenges, albeit for a certain time-frame only, in order to do the most important thing there is – Listen. CPR is tailor-made for personal time out, away from the hustle and bustle of life, in order to be alone with God so that one can attend to Him who is within. The time of silence and solitude, whether one is the quiet type or not, is so that we can listen in to hear for ourselves, the God who dwells within. It is not an escapism from reality and certainly not an easy cop-out. To wait, and to do so in silence and solitude, is never an easy thing for us all who have become more of  a human doing and less of a human being. 


The component of “Contemplative” is foundationally Biblical Meditation. It is listening in through the Bible. Reading and hearing the Scripture as God’s own love notes to each retreatant individually. It is  very much a personal and not just intentional time out with God.  This is so, so that the retreatant will have the privacy for Intimacy with Christ, which is Biblical Prayer as Richard Foster has called it “a love relationship.”  “Prayer” is not so much about asking as it is about listening and receiving from the One who knows our every need even before we speak. Yet in the midst of the “privacy for Intimacy” is the crucial element of Community as seen in the presence of other retreatants. The one another-ness in Christ carry each other along life’s highways and byways during the retreat days even while in silence and solitude. Intimacy with Christ breeds witness and personal experience of the Community of Believers even while in retreats. The presence of others help each other to recognize that one is never alone in Christ but there is this “clouds and crowds of witnesses”. And this is further enhanced in the daily celebration of Communion at the Lord’s Table of Remembrance.


In short RETREAT is very much a “conversion,” of being born again, seen in the rhythm of relinquish-and-return, better understood in the following :

Relinquish	– all that demand and distract us from the Fullness of Life for a specified period of    time in order to…
Enter	– into the Inn of God’s Heart through Biblical Meditation and Reflective  Listening so as    to…
Tend	– to the Holy of Holies within us as the Temple, the Dwelling Place of God’s Holy    Spirit. And having our lenses clarified and senses illuminated, we  are to…
Realign	– all our soul and heart and strength and mind with God even as we relish in  the    Healer who is putting us together again, before we make our…
Entrance	– back into our  marketplace, community, world to face life’s challenges and demands,    but now with an awakening…
Attentiveness	– to the “hidden” God who is still at work in our daily life, and working alongside Him    to…
Tend	– to the wounded and broken ones in our community of humanity, giving freely what    we have so freely received from God who is Love.