Apparently, when you turn off your iPhone and other distractions—and follow the St. Ignatius spiritual exercises for 30 days (not a typo!)—
you’ll discover that Jesus delivers some very, very funny lines!At least that was the 2018 profound experience of Father Darrin Merlino, a Catholic priest in between assignments. During COVID in 2020, when we were “forced to live like monks” (LOL!), he reflected back on that fork-in-the-road month at a Colorado retreat center. And gratefully for us, he shares his joy-filled journey and journal with us. You must read
30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God.
But first, let’s back up a minute for context. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was born in his family’s castle in Spain, sowed his wild oats early, excelled in military skirmishes, but a cannonball almost did him in. While recuperating, he read
The Life of Christ and became a Christ-follower. Another early influential book was
The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis.
On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Ignatius’ ship was detained and he spent a serendipitous year growing his faith in the Catalonia region of Spain, begging, working, and reading the stories of St. Francis.
Thus began his work on The Spiritual Exercises—instructions on how to take a spiritual retreat.Hmmm. While this sounds interesting, even beneficial, most of us can’t imagine “30 days unplugged.” Good for a priest or a pastor—certainly.
Realistic for the rest of us? Hardly. (But as Lee Corso always warns on ESPN, “Not so fast, my friend!”)
Keep reading, please. Even Father Merlino wondered if his larger-than-life personality, with a super-sized relational side, could cope in a cloistered 30-day Ignatian silent retreat in Sedalia, Colo. Yet he confesses that after serving as a priest for 20 years, “that month was truly life-altering for me.” He adds, “The only reason I was able to hear His voice so clearly was that I had turned off my tech—not an easy task for someone addicted to his phone and laptop…”
My Confession. If you’re like me during this unending lockdown, you can hardly wait to travel again.
But Father Merlino has an alternative travel plan for us—follow “St. Ignatius’ map to the journey of a lifetime.” St. Ignatius (who, by the way, was named the patron saint of spiritual retreats in 1922), structured a four-part rhythm/retreat experience—over four weeks (30 days). As recommended, during his July 1-30, 2018 retreat, Fr. Merlino met each morning with a spiritual director who provided handouts/assignments and encouragement.
The practice of solitude and silence enabled Fr. Merlino to engage in the Meditations (intellect) and the Contemplations (imagination).
Using our imagination and creativity, St. Ignatius urges us to picture ourselves in the Gospel stories. Example:
Fr. Merlino pictured himself in Luke 2:41-50 as Matthew Marconi, the interviewer and podcaster, broadcasting a Q&A segment with Jesus on his “Matthew on the Mic Show.” The first caller’s question to Jesus: “Yeah. Uhh, my name is Charlie from Nova Scotia. What did you talk about with the Jewish leaders in the Temple?”
Jesus explains and then adds, “When I was a twelve-year-old boy in the Temple, I got through the explanation of about 200 prophecies when My mom and dad showed up. I was on a roll. I was shocked to see My parents, really. I wasn’t sure why they were there.” (
You must read the full narrative for July 16!)
In the exercises, St. Ignatius asks retreatants to leverage their hearts, minds, and senses. You’ll enjoy July 9 (“I really had a lot of fun with these meditations throughout the day”) when Fr. Merlino journals more than 175 things that have touched his senses over the years. Just a few here:
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Tasted: In-N-Out Burgers, Parma prosciutto, gelato (he’s Italian!)
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Seen: Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier, Sistine Chapel, Venice
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Smelled: garlic, coffee, cologne
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Heard: children laughing, the click of a camera, Gregorian Chant
•
Touched: soft bread, pinching cheeks, Eucharist
What’s on your taste-see-smell-hear-touch list?
Amazingly, this unpretentious priest grants us permission to read his journal! His transparency is refreshing.• Fr. Merlino imagines God at a workbench “creating a computer program, which is me. I see all my gifts and talents, one by one, being added.” He adds, “Unfortunately, I then see Him taking away the ability to be organized. Yes, He does have a sense of humor!”
• “My spiritual director suggests I read Isaiah 43:1-19 at least three times out loud.”
Fr. Merlino then imagines a new image in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling: Adam is out. He’s in!“Pearson—you mentioned there was Jesus humor. Is there more?”• In Fr. Merlino’s commentary on Luke 2:51-52, he notes,
“Breaking from my meditation, what I find fascinating is that none of the boys in Nazareth made the cut to be an Apostle!”• Imaging himself as a guest on Bill Maher’s TV show: “He is accusing me of being a sinner. I say, ‘Duh, of course I am. The difference between you and me is that I admit that I am a sinner, but you haven’t yet.’”
• Yet, Fr. Merlino’s guardian angel chimes in, “This one is taking forever to perfect.”
• Archbishop Fulton Sheen, speaking to prisoners,
“The difference between you and me is that you got caught.” (True story!)
In silence and solitude, Fr. Merlino recalled his calling while reading the meditation on Matthew 4:18-25. At the time, he “had NO desire to be a priest, ever!” Yet he writes that on January 6, 1987, around 10:30 p.m. “my mom blurted out of nowhere, ‘I think the Lord is calling you to be a priest.’” He admits, “All of a sudden, I felt a real strong presence of the Holy Spirit, causing me to lose my breath. It almost literally suffocated me.”
Fortunately, Fr. Merlino survived his calling (!), and over a mile high in Colorado in 2018, he discerned, and the Lord confirmed, his calling to media evangelism as co-founder of
Catholic Media Missionaries. (Media? His ordination in 2000 was the first ever in U.S. history to be broadcast live via the internet). Visit his
website here to learn more, including how to view CMM’s flagship video conversation series, “Hound of Heaven.” (Note: discernment is a big deal in St. Ignatius’ spiritual exercises.)
Did you know—that TV’s “instant replay” is a form of contemplation? 30 Days Unplugged notes, “Contemplation comes easily if we let it. It is simply part of us and of our world. Whenever we recall a keenly embarrassing moment, or a fondly remembered moment in our lives we are contemplating them. We are replaying them, making them a deeper part of our lives.” And this insight about contemplation: “It lets the Church, and us, remember the many things [Jesus] said and did. And, we can hardly be surprised that, where we do not have all the data, we fill in; we make the moment come alive. His story is important, and we want to keep remembering and retelling it.”
And wow, God has gifted Father Merlino with a vivid imagination! He invites us to scamper along his rabbit trails and sidebars, including: George McFly in
Back to the Future, the Divine experience of an eight-man rowing crew team (reminded me of
The Boys in the Boat), then at Dodger Stadium—he’s blasting home runs during BP. And get this: under Michelangelo’s tutelage, “God chisels me fatter and bald to show me the true image of how he sees me now.”
There’s more: Chesterton Chats, “Freedom” by Aretha Franklin, the Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, God putting the finishing touches on his D.I. “Darrin’s intelligence,” and “Grow the heck up!” Crafting a personal mission statement—then with Holy Spirit nudges, re-writing Version 2.0 around midnight. Brilliant: how Jesus wipes “away sin like a high-powered windshield wiper during a heavy rain.”
In the July 10 meditation on Psalm 34, Fr. Merlino asks, “How can my soul glory in God?” and the answer comes to him through songs and hymns. The line “Taste and see that the Lord is good” is paraphrased in The Message (think the senses) as: “Open your mouth and
taste, open your eyes and
see—how good God is. Blessed are you who
run to him.” So, naturally, this sent me to YouTube where I found
The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s “taste and see” version with almost 27 million views!
Listen to The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sing Psalm 34 (8 min.)BONUS! 30 Days Unplugged features stunning original artwork—more than 60 drawings by 24 artists. Buy two books: one for your coffee table and one to read and reread and reread.
Visit the artists here.
Finally, be assured Fr. Merlino knows that most of us will not be able to do the 30-day silence and solitude drill. There is an eight-day option. Even Dr. Scott Hahn, who wrote the foreword, admits he may never do the 30-day plan, but adds,
“I have two sons who have done it, and I’ve seen the difference it made in them as they discerned their priestly vocation.” 30 Days Unplugged includes five next steps, suggesting you “use this book for a makeshift home retreat.” Plus, the robust website,
Ignatian Spirituality, includes a nine-minute video with a summary of the four phases of
The Spiritual Exercises. The video also suggests alternatives to the 30-day experience.
Click here. Need a retreat location?
Click here and
click here.
To order from Amazon, click on the title for
30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God (Full Color Edition), by Father Darrin Merlino, CMF. Note: To order the specially-priced “Black & White Edition,”
click here.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: , includes this: “Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for Your voice—in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and in doubt, in noise and in silence. Teach me, O God, to listen.”
Father Merlino invested five hours in the spiritual exercises for July 9. During the fourth prayer period, he focused on: risks I took (“jumping off a bridge about 90 feet above the water”), dangers experienced, influences, Scriptural influences, cherished people, life’s achievements, and unfulfilled desires.
Guest blogger Jerry White writes, “I once gave a message entitled ‘Life in the Slow Lane.’ My wife laughed, commenting that I needed to slow down first.” Read White’s commentary on Lesson 28, “Slow Down and Wait on God.”
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