I was looking forward to this retreat. I was eager to learn about John Calvin’s understanding and practice of prayer. I have “The Institutes of Christian Religion” in my library, but I have never read it.

Dr Jimmy Tan was giving input during this silent retreat, which ran from August 20-22, 2026. I was there together with Elder Kim Lee and Margaret Lee as spiritual directors. Margaret Lee and I belonged to the same faith-sharing group of the spiritual direction formation program. What a joy to serve on the same team! Interestingly, I also got to meet someone I knew from Instagram, Choo Tuck Wai.

This is my fourth time serving in “retreats@TTC”.  I finally have no problem finding my way around the maze that is Trinity Theological College. I felt proud of myself for having this mental map finally imprinted in my mind.

I was impressed and blessed by the attentiveness to detail and hospitality shown by Ms Sherry Hua, the TTC staff member who provides support for retreats@TTC. In this particular retreat, we were blessed by scrumptious meals served on plates. Food is important, and I was thankful that the organisers cared enough about the retreatants to ensure they were blessed with great food and good rest.

I received timely reminders, fresh insights and apt analogies through the four guided meditations. We learned about the spring from which prayer ascends to God. It is faith engendered by the triune God. To Calvin, faith is “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit”. Faith is born from the gospel. And prayer is “the chief exercise of faith”. I also learned about what Calvin regarded as the rules of right prayer. They are a heartfelt sense of reverence, a heartfelt sense of need and repentance; a heartfelt sense of humility and trust in God; and a heartfelt sense of confident hope. There are other insights and reminders, but I think this suffices for a blog post.

Every guided meditation is followed by segments of time for retreatants to practise what they have learned. One of the segments was a silent walk in the morning to the Dairy Farm behind the college. Calvin wrote that creation should inspire us to lift our hearts to God since it displays the attributes of God.

Hopefully, there could be a rerun of this same theme in a future retreat. Or perhaps there needs to be a retrieval of the prayer spirituality of the various partners (Methodist, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian) of Trinity Theological College, for example, John Wesley on Prayer, Martin Luther on Prayer, Thomas Cranmer on Prayer.

Accompanying others in spiritual direction is a privilege and joy because we witness the stories of individuals who seek God in earnest. It can be heavy at times because we hear individuals share their pain and struggles. We provide them with a safe space to share their concerns and longings, their struggles and forward movements. It is indeed a sacred calling.

I was hoping to have some time for myself to pray, but there was hardly any. No wonder spiritual directors have to go for their own retreats to have ample time with God. While giving spiritual direction, there is no time for prayer. Those few, little pockets of free time find me seated and resting in my room, usually after four sessions of accompanying others.

When was the last time you went for a silent retreat? Would you like to share your experience in the comment box to encourage others?