The retreat happened last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of may 15,16 and 17 at

Assumption Sabbath Place, Baguio City. It was guided by Father.

As we arrived at the venue, the place was beautiful and perfect place to have silence for
a moment to have a peace of mind. During the retreat days we left all non-essentials
behind and spent the time in silence and solitude.

Now I realize that retreat means seeking God and His will for our life. We are called to
fulfil the will of God in our life. Retreats help us making the right decisions. It has been
wonderful. It has deepened my life with Christ...demonstrating his humaness. He has
become a friend,mentor, guide and more personal guide...I am filled with gratitude.

Father taught us the three practical philosophies; First is Individualism - What is in

it for me? This fosters greed, selfishness and exploitation. It is a natural desire and
human nature to separate oneself among their peers. With every message around
young people to separate themselves, it is difficult to counteract that message with
ones of selflessness and sacrifice.

Second is Hedonism - A philosophy that emphasizes pleasure as the ultimate goal of

life. The hedonist motto is: "If it feels good, do it." What if everyone on your team
only wanted to do what was enjoyable? Young people often want to have the
"freedom" to do what they want. They mistakenly identify freedom with a lack of
structure an no accountability.
Freedom means having the freewill to make the right decision without jeopardizing
the values of the decision maker.

And last is Minimalism - What is the least I can do? Minimal effort for maximum
reward. Minimalism is the enemy of excellence and the father of mediocrity.We have
all cut corners and have had athletes that will do the same. Some of this behavior is
constituted by the ever-so-rising expectations of what a normal work day should look
like. Even with longer days, there often isn't enough time in the day to do the best job
possible

The human heart is on a quest for happiness. Every person yearns for happiness like
the desert yearns for rain. You have a desire for happiness, I have a desire for
happiness. This desire is universal, common to every member of the human family.
We simply desire to be happy, and we act from this desire.

We often do things that we think will make us happy, only to discover that they end
up making us miserable. This is often because we confuse pleasure with happiness.
And sometimes long-term misery comes disguised as short-term pleasure. These
moments of happiness are of course real, but only as real as a shadow. The shadow of
a person is real, but it is nothing compared to the actual person. So many of us spend a
large portion of our lives chasing shadows.
I believe God wants us to be happy. I believe God gave us the yearning for happiness
that constantly preoccupies our human hearts. It seems God has placed this yearning
within each human heart as a spiritual navigational instrument designed to lead us to
our destiny. God himself is the author of our yearning for happiness.

In the end, we all have our own vices and demons we need to fight. These three
concept can cripple the culture of a team or business. It's our responsibility to fight
these -isms at every turn.