Thomas Merton said, “For me to be a saint, means to be myself.” Merton deeply valued authenticity. He taught that authenticity goes beyond just wanting to be accepted as you present yourself. Authenticity is about discovering your True Self.
The Self you think you are may be very far from who you really are. Our self is not our persona. That is our False Self. The False Self is who we’d like to think we are. It who we’d like others to see us as. It is made up of all kinds of distortions and motivations and it covers over the True Self.
The True Self is who God created you to be and it is your eternal self. One does not need to ‘become’ their True Self. Instead, they simply need to recognize and peal away the layers of the False Self like the skin around an onion or the coal that covers the diamond. Then the True Self will be revealed.
In this teaching retreat, you will learn about the True & False Self and be given guidance and time to gaze into the mirror of your own soul with God. You will be invited to begin recognizing your False Self and the purpose it serves. You will be encouraged to discover the original goodness of your True Self and begin living from this center, where God resides with you.
