A Retreat Experience in the Dominican Republic A Retreat Experience in the Dominican Republic Gesu Parish offers retreat experiences for parishioners in the Dominican Republic. In our Ignatian tradition, a retreat is an opportunity to retreat FROM something and to retreat TO something. This is a retreat FROM our daily routine. For many, this alone will be a grace of the retreat, for whenever we change our routine we introduce a new perspective, vulnerability and potentially open ourselves to insight into ourselves and our patterns. We are more able to get in touch with the poverty within ourselves, and open that up to the Lord.
Some perspective begins to come even with the questions.
There are certainly worse places in the third world to go, many of which would challenge our personal safety and ability to make a retreat. However, the Dominican Republic is clearly not the first world. We should understand we are landing in a place VERY different from our country. This difference goes beyond the minor difficulties and inconveniences we will encounter. It even goes beyond the insecurity we will encounter by landing in a place where we can't speak the language or read the signs.