Retreating the Retreat

I’m pretty bummed. One of my 2015 goals was to attend a spiritual retreat. It has been something long in the making: I hadn’t taken dedicated time away for that since before getting married.

Last April, we bought the “Pope Package” at the San Juan Diego Catholic High School Gala exclusively because it included certificates for two retreats at the Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Dallas, TX. We didn’t realize the twins were coming, so that changed plans quite a bit. With a July 31st, 2015 expiration date, I gave away one of the certificates, saving the latter for myself for this coming weekend.

Alas, Montserrat called today to notify me they’re canceling the retreat due to not hitting the minimum number of 20. The e-mail they had sent had 20 names, with one gentlemen replying to all (as they open cc’d everyone) saying he had canceled and awaiting a refund already. I suppose perhaps others may have cancelled too.

I’ve gone without a retreat for so many years that punting again shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I had been, though, looking forward to it for so long now and knowing that I needed the time away to recharge myself spiritually. I’m pretty drained in that department right now, so it is almost like a mirage. I could see this weekend coming up, blocked it off for months, found a car (as we only own one, so had to find a way to drive there), figured out how the in-laws could balance a workshop of their own with helping Vanessa at home with five kids, only to realize it was nothing.

In the end, it isn’t the end of the world or life and death. It is simply depressing. Surprisingly for a retreat house, they don’t actually offer that many generic retreats. There are only two more men’s retreat weekends this year with one date already impossible and the other would require work (again) to make, ignoring if they’ll honor a gift certificate that would be almost six months expired by that point.