Summer is a time for vacation and recuperation. Ideally, we want to use this time not only for rest but also to revisit what we have done and prepare for what is ahead of us. Summer is also a time for spiritual renewal and it is for this reason that there are many summer camps for students and young workers. However, the epidemiological situation that we are now faced with posed a challenge to the organization of summer camps.

SKAC (Student Catholic Center) Palma responded to this challenge on a simple way by organizing three eight-day Ignatian retreats at Modrave (near Šibenik, Croatia) for around seventy volunteers and exercitants under the motto “To Love and to Serve in All Things.”

Participants worked in silence in the old olive grove, ate in the shade of a few pine trees, bathed in the sea, encountered the Blessed Sacrament in the Tent of Meeting, enjoyed sunrises and sunsets, helped each other during storms. With the help of the daily mass and spiritual encouragement offered by Father Tomislav Špiranec SJ and Father Hrvoje Mravak SJ, the exercitants practiced finding the presence of God in small things. The exercitants themselves said that the most helpful thing was the silence and daily conversations with their spiritual companions who would help them remain in those experiences where they met God.

Spiritual companions say that the whole eight-day retreat can be summed up in one question: “Where was God?” and one answer: “Remain there!” According to evaluations, there seems to be no one who has not met God. All of this is a further piece of evidence for the truth of the claim that God spends his summer in Modrave.