Rappler hosts Jesuit’s online Holy Week retreat

MANILA, Philippines – We live in a time of disquiet.

It’s more than the noise from Youtube videos, Facebook posts, or our busy lives in school or at work. Fr Johnny Go, a Jesuit who has spent much of his life with the youth, says disquiet is also about anxiety.

“It’s possible that even if it’s calm outside, we still experience disquiet inside. Or when it’s turbulent outside, we can also experience peace inside. We want to imitate our Lord because our Lord was able to maintain his peace regardless of what’s happening outside,” said Go, former president of Xavier School and former director of Jesuit Communications.

Go, who goes by the online name “Fr J,” helps us discover and address these feelings of disquiet through an online retreat this Holy Week.

Rappler is hosting Fr J’s online retreat, with the theme, “God in a Season of Disquiet.” It runs from Holy Thursday, April 2, to Holy Saturday, April 4.

Fr J has held online Holy Week retreats for the past 8 years, and has drawn thousands of regular followers. He hosted past retreats for Holy Week as well as Advent on his personal website, www.pinsoflight.net. 

His online Holy Week retreat, Go explained, caters to Filipinos who can’t leave their house or office for a face-to-face retreat. It can also help Filipinos who work overseas.

The retreat uses the best multimedia elements – from video clips to online surveys to music that soothes the spirit.

“The Internet provides many opportunities for entertainment, socializing. Why not for prayer? Why not for understanding God more? We’re just making the most of what’s there,” the Jesuit retreat master said.

To prepare for this retreat, take our pre-retreat survey on Holy Tuesday, March 31. Here’s the link to the pre-retreat survey.

We’ll give you the links to the 3-part retreat on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. For Holy Thursday, click the link below:

• Holy Thursday retreat: Silence of stones
• Good Friday retreat: Absence of angels
• Holy Saturday retreat: Presence of peace

We leave you with these words from Fr J:

It’s not easy finding God, but in times of disquiet, when our hearts are most restless and most in need of Him, they are also most open. In what should be a season of deepest disquiet, when the Father seems most silent and absent in His life, our Lord Jesus shows us how to discover God’s subversive presence in the most unexpected places in our lives.

Have a blessed Holy Week, online. – Rappler.com