After a long and hot-cold trip on a Peñafrancia Tours bus, we finally reached Ateneo de Naga on about eight in the evening. At last, we are on our home after the 8-day Ignatian Spiritual Silent Retreat at Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, Quezon City.


It was a great relief for my tired muscles to finally get a rest and lied down on a bed. I miss the dorm, where I satayed, but much more Sacred Heart. It was such a wonderful and awesome place, no one like other I've seen. The picture of the place can't get out of my mind; the large balete trees, green landscape of grass, the swing on the balete tree in which I relaxed after a heavy dinner, the green-painted benches, the chapels namely La Strada where I get my silence, the air-conditioned Xavier Chapel, the solemn Immaculate Conception Chapel and the main chapel, the swimming pool, room 214 and everything that became part of this great experience. It was nostalgic indeed. The place that became my sanctuary for eight days became dear to me.


The experience I had on the retreat is etched on my heart. The everyday struggle of attaining silence, the realizations I have which were now engraved in my being, and especially the encounter with the Lord. My retreat experience is one that is treasured and I will never regret at all.