Skip to content

Making a Lenten Retreat with Pope Francis: Learning from Elijah

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes
Along with Pope Francis, we have much to learn from Elijah the prophet. Lent is an opportune time to begin.

In many respects, our life on this earth is a classroom of love and a continual invitation to holiness. As we age, we are given the opportunities we need to receive the graces we need to empty ourselves of all that clutters up our life - so that we can be free to increasingly surrender to the Lord. There we find true freedom. There we find true rest. The question is, how will we respond to the invitations?  Retreats are a time to be still. Every morning we are invited to begin our day in prayer. To find a place to be still. Every morning can become for us a small retreat. We should quiet ourselves and listen - for the voice of the Lord, under the broom tree, in the whisper of the wind, where He still speaks. Along with Pope Francis, we have much to learn from Elijah the prophet.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - Pope Francis just returned from a Lenten retreat. Along with members of the Roman curia, he took part in a directed Lenten Retreat given by a Carmelite priest named Fr Bruno Secundin.

The talks given throughout the retreat were taken from what was described as a "pastoral reading of the life and ministry of the Old Testament prophet Elijah". They all presented the biblical account of this great prophet as a model for all Christians. After all, we are seeking to live our own vocations faithfully, no matter our state in life.

The theme of the Lenten retreat was "Servants and prophets of the Living God."

As a participant in a Lenten retreat, Francis did what all of the other participants in the retreat did. He rode on the bus to the retreat house. He took his place in the entire experience as a simple Christian, seeking to grow closer to God during these 40 days of prayer, fasting and alms-giving called Lent.

The official Vatican Newspaper summarized the retreat this way, beginning with the first evening:

"Francis participated in Eucharistic Adoration and the celebration of Vespers, listening to the preacher's introduction in which he reflected on the invitation "leave your own 'village'".

"The next day, 23 February, they focused on Elijah's "school of mercy" and following his example of leading a "life on the periphery", after a Eucharistic celebration on the theme: "Go East, hide yourself and return to your roots". 

I was not privy to the talks given by the retreat master. But, I think a reflection on Elijah is an appropriate response for all of us. I suggest we can all make a Lenten retreat with Pope Francis, by considering the story of Elijah for ourselves. 

Elijah has always been one of my favorite biblical characters.

Many people have heard of the dramatic encounter between this great Old Testament Prophet and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It is recorded in the eighteenth chapter of the Old Testament Book of First Kings.

The prophet confronts hundreds who oppose him in a test of faith.

Each builds an altar and calls upon his god to send fire to consume it. Elijah is the only one whose prayer is answered as the Altar and sacrifice are consumed by Fire from heaven.

However, many people are not familiar with the story that follows in the next chapter of the Book.

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

This same mighty prophet runs for cover, seeking refuge in a desert under a broom tree, begging God to take his life-when confronted by a wicked queen named Jezebel who has heard the news of the encounter from Ahab.

It is under the broom tree in our own lives that we often learn what may be the more important lesson for the journey. That is because it is there where most of us truly live.

It is there where we also have the hardest time surrendering our wills to the Will of God.

After Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel he was exhausted. Then he learned of the threat upon his life from Jezebel. We find this mighty man of God so distraught that he prays for death.

Retreating to a desert to die under a broom tree, he encounters the Lord, who visits him through a messenger. That is what the word Angel means. His surrender to the voice of God, though reluctant at first, shows us a pattern we can imitate in our own lives.

It teaches us how to hear the voice of God not in spite of but even through those difficult times in our own lives.

When we reach the end of ourselves, we find the beginning of authentic faith.

We read: "Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: "This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."

He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water.

"After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food; he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb." (1 Kgs. 19:4-8)

I spend a lot of time under the broom tree as I grow older.

I see it as a holy place, a place of invitation, in the unfolding loving plan of God in my own life. It is under the broom tree - when I feel the least able to continue the struggle - that I learn to surrender myself to the One who always sends His messengers.
 
There, I often find the sustenance I need for the journey of life and learn the ways of living faith.

Light Your Free Payer Candle for a departed loved one

What is Palm Sunday?

Live on March 20, 2024 @ 10am PDT

I marvel at the courage of Elijah and the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to confound the false prophets of Baal. However, it is this same God who chooses to meet and dialogue with Elijah under that broom tree after that dramatic event.

It is this same Elijah who - even after the Carmel experience - runs into the desert, prays for death, and collapses in exhaustion under the broom tree. How very human. How very encouraging. How very real.

The early Christians referred to death as falling asleep. It was the point of complete surrender into the loving arms of a loving God. In this experience of his weakness Elijah encounters the Lord in a different way. I propose that this encounter reveals the heart of Christian prayer, a call to surrendered love.

Under the broom tree he is fed a hearth cake and water, a Eucharistic symbol. "He got up, ate and drank; then strengthened by that food; he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb." (1 Kings 19:8)

There he learns to hear the voice of God as He passed by, not in a mighty wind, an earthquake, or a fire - but in a gentle whisper - the kind that can only be heard by one who has a surrendered ear to hear. Humble - not haughty. Not filled with self but emptied, and able to be filled.

"Then the LORD said, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD-but the LORD was not in the wind.

"After the wind there was an earthquake-but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire-but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, "Elijah, why are you here?" (1 Kings 19:11 - 13)

Millennia later, God came as a Man. He spoke on three mountains.

On the first, He gave the new law through which His followers would call down the fire of love to consume the world through living their lives of poured-out-love after his Ascension.

On the second, He was transfigured before their eyes in the presence of Elijah and Moses, fulfilling both the law and the prophets and showing them the future glory for all who walked in His way.

And on the third, He spoke the words - It is finished - and gave himself up in complete surrender to redeem the world that had rejected His love.

There is a mystery here, deep and profound, yet as simple as the broom tree encounter of our teacher Elijah.

God is searching for men and women who will surrender their lives in love to Him in this hour.

Often, it takes the depletion of all of our own efforts and resources before we are willing to give up - and give in - to Him.

When we do, the life of true faith begins. It is there we learn to hear the God of surrendered love in the whisper of the wind. It is there that we learn the Faith of Elijah, under the broom tree.

Lent is a season of conversion. It is a reflective season, when we are invited to examine ourselves and see how we are doing in our specific vocation to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we allowing Him to live His life in and through us?

In many respects, our life on this earth is a classroom of love and a continual invitation to holiness. As we age, we are given the opportunities we need to receive the graces we need to empty ourselves of all that clutters up our life - so that we can be free to increasingly surrender to the Lord. There we find true freedom. There we find true rest.

The question is, how will we respond to the invitations?  Retreats are a time to be still. Every morning we are invited to begin our day in prayer. To find a place to be still. Every morning can become for us a small retreat.

We should quiet ourselves and listen - for the voice of the Lord, under the broom tree, in the whisper of the wind, where He still speaks.

Along with Pope Francis, we have much to learn from Elijah the prophet. Lent is an opportune time to begin.

-----

Deacon Keith A. Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. A married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, he and his wife Laurine have five grown children and seven grandchildren. He is a human rights lawyer and public policy advocate who served as the first and founding Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice in the nineteen nineties and has long been active at the intersection of faith and culture. He serves as Special Counsel to Liberty Counsel. He is a senior contributing writer to The Stream.

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

---


'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'


Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.