A spiritual retreat with Saint Charbel

article published on 05/09/2025 in the category : Life of the Saints

A guide to silence for refocusing on what's essential

Saint Charbel never preached major retreats. He never wrote spiritual meditations or led groups. And yet his simple example has become, for thousands of believers, a path of inner retreat. Through his hidden life, he teaches another way of withdrawing from the world: not by fleeing, but by allowing oneself to be inhabited by God.

To make a spiritual retreat with Saint Charbel is not so much to shut yourself away in a place as to enter a space of silence, listening and abandonment. It's about taking the time to be silent, to lay down the weapons of everyday life, and to allow yourself to be shaped in humility.

Getting out of the way, like him

Saint Charbel spent the last 23 years of his life in a hermitage at the Annaya monastery in Lebanon. There, he lived in solitude, dividing his days between prayer, manual work and adoration. He was not looking for great revelations, but daily fidelity to God's will.

To experience a retreat with him, all you have to do is stand apart as he did: turn off the noise, slow down, choose simplicity. Read a Gospel passage, keep silence, pray with regularity, and offer each gesture to God. Charbel teaches us that spiritual fruitfulness is born of loving repetition.

Welcoming silence as a place of encounter

Silence was not a void for Saint Charbel. It was a place for dialogue. In his long hours without words, he listened to God, prayed for the world, and offered his life as a sacrifice of love.

In a retreat inspired by his spirituality, silence becomes a door. A door to encounter Christ, to hear the true desires of our hearts, to heal what needs healing. We don't run away from the world: we enter more deeply into our vocation.

Letting ourselves be transformed in humility

Saint Charbel did not seek to "feel" God. He lived by pure faith. He did not need strong emotions to believe. This voluntary self-denial is an invitation to trust, even when the retreat seems arid.

With him, we learn that God works in secret, in the deep heart. That grace sometimes manifests itself quietly. And that it is often after the retreat, in the return to everyday life, that we see its fruits.