Miracles of Mercy: A Retreat Guide on the Healing Touch of Jesus

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

08/15/2016

When was the last time you reflected deeply, even meditated, on one of Jesus’ miracles? He performed an awful lot of them. Thirty-four are recorded in the Gospels. And St. John tells us that those are just a small percentage of the total. He writes:

“There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” —John 21:25

If Jesus performed so many miracles, there must have been a reason. God must have something to say to us through all these miraculous deeds. What is the message behind these miracles? That’s the question that this Retreat Guide, Miracles of Mercy: A Retreat Guide on the Healing Touch of Jesus, will explore.

In the First Meditation we will look at two of Jesus’ miracles and see how they reveal God’s power and his love. In other words, they show that he not only is able to heal us, but he also wants to.
In the Second Meditation, we will reflect on a different event to see how all of Jesus’ miracles are also signs meant to point our attention towards our true destiny.
And in the Conference, we will see how we ourselves can become better and better living signs of God’s mercy, living miracles, as it were, by understanding and taming the emotion of anger. Let’s begin by quieting our hearts and turning our attention once again to the Lord, who never stops paying attention to us.

Let’s ask him for all the graces we need, most especially the grace to experience a fresh, through this Retreat Guide on Christ’s miracles of mercy, the healing touch of Jesus.

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How to Use A Retreat Guide

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How to Use A Retreat Guide in a Small Group

Gather together, start with prayer, and then watch the Intro and First Meditation together. At the end of the First Meditation, spend 5 – 10 minutes in silent meditation/prayer with the reflection questions. Then watch the Second Meditation and have 5 – 10 minutes of silent time. Lastly, watch the Conference and use the meditation questions as the springboard for personal prayer or group discussion.

You can use this format to gather in person or virtually. If virtual, someone could run the videos (sharing their screen, e.g., using Zoom or any other video conference platform), pausing for silent reflection.

The Conferences (the last video of each Retreat Guide) are designed as stand-alone videos offering practical applications for living out the Retreat Guide theme. They always work well with the Meditations, but you could use the Conference separately for a shorter gathering to kick off a topic for discussion.

Seasonally, you may want to use a Retreat Guide at home or with a closer group of friends. For Advent or Lent, you could select one Retreat Guide a week, watch one video each night, and discuss it as a family.

These are just some suggestions. Feel free to experiment with a format that works best for your group. With almost 60 Retreat Guides, you have a great library of retreats to pick from.