{"id":172489,"date":"2025-05-28T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=172489"},"modified":"2025-06-07T00:21:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T04:21:54","slug":"breathe-into-his-presence-a-retreat-on-encountering-christ-through-breath-and-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/breathe-into-his-presence-a-retreat-on-encountering-christ-through-breath-and-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathe Into His Presence: A retreat on encountering Christ through breath and prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Last month, Fr. Andreas Kramarz, LC, and Shereen Yusuff, a certified breath coach and convert to the Catholic Church, held a workshop titled \u201cBreathe Into His Presence,\u201d hosted by Divine Mercy University<\/span><\/a> and sponsored by Regnum Christi of Washington, DC. The workshop introduced the 20 participants to connecting with one\u2019s heart through proper breathing to foster stillness and thus deepen the relationship with God in love. It was the first event of its kind and included adoration, Mass, confessions, and other moments of prayer.<\/p>\n

The leader of the workshop, Shereen Yusuff, grew up as a Muslim in the country of Oman. At a young age, Shereen learned about the importance of proper breathing techniques; she began playing tennis when she was four years old, and by the age of nine, she was ranked the number one player in her age group in Oman. She continued her training and experience in this breath journey throughout her life in a variety of extreme endurance disciplines, such as marathons, ultramarathons, Ironman competitions, mountaineering, and thru-hiking. As a performance coach, Shereen used to teach people various breathing techniques in order to increase productivity and energy, optimize focus and concentration, and even have an impact on the immune system.<\/p>\n

While Shereen holds certifications in a variety of breathing methods and has a profound understanding of the human body and its functionality, she also practices a deep spiritual life. Since her conversion, the combination of her deep Catholic spirituality and experience in breathwork is the foundation for her unique approach which she has been teaching and sharing for years, particularly with priests and various religious communities, such as the Missionaries of Charity.<\/p>\n

It was while she was on an internship in China pursuing her degree in aerospace engineering that Shereen had her first encounter with people and a culture that did not practice religion, and this led to her own abandonment of her belief in Islam. Years later, while in Poland, Shereen had a profound supernatural experience that reignited her Muslim faith. Further encounters of prayer, and a deep call to serve the poor, led Shereen to Mother Teresa\u2019s Missionaries of Charity in Houston, where she began attending daily Mass with the community. Very soon, Shereen realized that she was called to embrace the Catholic faith and was baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil in 2021. Mother Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had first accompanied Shereen in her journey to the Catholic faith, continues to play a major role in her faith journey. \u201cMother Teresa\u2019s role was to come to the poorest of the poor, and today I recognize that I<\/i> was the poorest of the poor, because I didn\u2019t know who Jesus was,\u201d Shereen tells\u00a0 <\/span>Shalom World<\/span><\/a>. \u201cMother Teresa was that bridge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr. Andreas Kramarz first met Shereen through the Spiritual Direction Certificate Program<\/span><\/a> at Divine Mercy University. For several years, he has been working on a project exploring what integral formation means, the concept of shaping the whole person interiorly and exteriorly according to the love that God has revealed to us in Christ by integrating various formative components harmoniously with each other. Shereen\u2019s work on the importance and benefits of proper breathing and the impact that breath and attention to the heart can have on the spiritual life led to a collaboration, and the two have been working together since.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBreathe Into His Presence\u201d workshop itself grew out of conversations between Shereen and Fr. Andreas, as well as Fr. Walter Schu, LC, (chaplain and adjunct faculty member at DMU), Fr. Lino Otero, LC, (DMU\u2019s <\/span>Director of Life Long Learning), and Angela Kanazeh (local Regnum Christi director in Washington, DC). The event was held at DMU, and Fr. Lino provided an introduction, while Fr. Andreas contributed two talks, on his own experience with breath and on the connection between the physical and the spiritual heart; he was also available for the sacraments. The retreat concluded with adoration, during which time the participants discerned practical resolutions to take forward and implement in their daily lives, and Mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor everyone, I believe, it was Shereen\u2019s professional preparation, personal warmth, and dynamic approach that made the biggest impression,\u201d shares Fr. Andreas of the retreat. \u201cHer personal testimony of faith, academic, athletic, and professional achievements, as well as her profound knowledge of the matter, her good humor and personal and loving attention to all the participants, made the workshop not only effective but enjoyable. She was able to lead people with simple and clear explanations and exercises into the basics of proper breathing and into their first experience of how to connect with the heart, explore stillness, and listen to God\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr. Andreas makes clear that the breath exercises in the workshop are not a form of yoga, but an act of aligning the body and mind through breathing in order to achieve stillness and better connect to God, a practice known already by the early desert fathers. \u201cIt is an essential part of integral formation, becoming whole, especially for our most important relationship, that with God,\u201d explains Fr. Andreas. \u201cBut proper breathing also brings about a host of other physical and psychological benefits and thus can contribute to and improve our relationships with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find out more about Shereen\u2019s approach to accessing prayer and the heart through breath, visit her website at Breath of Life<\/span><\/a>, or hear her conversion story, and the role that Mother Teresa played in her journey to Catholicism, watch the video below.<\/p>\n