From Sunday evening, August 31, 2025, to Friday afternoon, September 5, the friars of the Custody of the Orient and the Holy Land – coming from Lebanon and Turkey – conducted their annual spiritual retreat at the Convent of Notre Dame du Puits (Our Lady of the Well) in Bkennaya, Lebanon. They were warmly welcomed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross of Lebanon, who own the convent.
The retreat speaker was Friar Matteo GHISINI, OFM Cap. He conducted the week-long retreat based on an program of meditation and personal and community discussion. The retreat focused on a question as simple as it was crucial: “Who Are You and Who Am I?” This invocation, which St. Francis himself repeated before the Lord, was the central theme of the reflections, inviting each friar to rediscover the face of God and reawaken his own identity as a consecrated person and brother.
Friar Matteo emphasized that discipleship does not arise from a human plan, but from an encounter with the Word that challenges and transforms. Spiritual life, in fact, is a journey that requires us to continually refine the image we have of God and ourselves. The Gospel reveals a God who surprises, who acts powerfully in unexpected ways and who reaches out to each of us, even when we experience spiritual aridity or feel distant from Him. The participants were particularly touched by the reflections, which highlighted how the Kingdom of God grows in a hidden but effective way, how the Word possesses a power capable of reaching everyone and everything, and how faith does not eliminate fear but transfigures it, according to the words of Jesus: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” (Mk 4:40). The friars reflected on the fruitfulness that flows from entrusting ourselves to God in love, as illustrated in the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25:14–30). They also reflected on the importance of remembering our personal spiritual journey in order to recognize how and when God first began His work in us, and to discern the signs of His action in our lives today.
The retreat took place in an atmosphere of silence, listening, and fraternity, allowing the friars to rediscover the beauty of community life and the power of shared prayer. Each friar had the opportunity to re-examine his own journey in the light of the Word, to strengthen the “yes” that he proclaimed in his vocation, and to open himself with hope and trust to the future. During the retreat, periods of personal meditation alternated with liturgical celebrations and fraternal discussions, fostering a renewed sense of communion and mission.
Grateful to the Lord for this experience of grace, the friars renewed their commitment to live and witness to the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis, at the service of the Church and their brothers, wherever they are called to work.
Friar Marian-Emanuel VĂTĂMĂNELU, Custodial Secretary
