Return to the Father
Mar 01, 2021I recently hosted a Catholic Life Coaching retreat for a group of amazing women. The theme was Return to the Father. As I prayed and planned the retreat, I kept thinking about how the past year had pulled us away from each other and the church.
Many of us have spent more time at home in personal prayer and reflection, but we have been isolated from the church and our church family.
The goal of the retreat was a reminder of the abundant love that the Father has for us and the never-ending invitation we have to return to him.
It is easy to get separated from the Father, so we have to constantly be moving toward him. We can easily lose sight of him because of our sins, wounds, pain and unhealthy habits. These things tend to cloud our vision and conceal his love.
The first step to returning to his loving embrace is to reveal what gets in the way. At times, this can be the most difficult step. We have to take a look inside ourselves to see what needs to be healed. The healing can be painful and may require us to bring it all into the light, but the alternative is worse. The alternative is avoiding our pain and emotions which in turn creates more pain and suffering.
As a Catholic Life Coach, I encouraged the women to allow their brokenness to surface so that God can begin to heal them.
During the retreat, women brought forth their pain and suffering and placed it at the feet of Jesus for healing. It was a powerful movement towards the Father who always welcomes us into his loving embrace, no matter how long we’ve been gone or what pain we bring to him.
In my Catholic Life Coaching practice, I challenge women to look at what separates them from the Father by asking these three questions.
-
Do I think the Father wants to welcome me back into his embrace?
-
What gets in the way of me moving towards the Father? Unforgiveness of others or myself, sin, mistakes, pain, loss, unanswered prayers?
-
How would my life change if allowed Jesus access to my entire heart?
Invite the Holy Spirit into your prayer time and reflect on these questions. The answers to the questions will begin to open the door to your healing. As we move back into the embrace of the Father, we will find spiritual, emotional and physical healings.
