The year 2020 became synonymous with pandemic, restrictions, and masks, yet for the leaders, employees, and volunteers of Shalom Media Ministry, it will always be remembered for the new vision, dynamic opportunities, and creative potential it heralded in.

While the mainstream secular world was slowing down, some shutting down, and others even becoming non-existent, Shalom Media Ministry (Shalom) flourished—it expanded and blossomed. The SW Prayer channel, 24/7 prayer, not only started at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it became a lifeline to many who were holding on to these spiritual experiences as a way for coping, connecting, and belonging in new ways as face-to-face contact became almost impossible and then greatly restricted. Shalom Retreats for 2020 began to be cancelled one after the other, and Shalom Media Ministry was the first Church ministry I knew of that initially cancelled all events until the latter half of the year. My experience as a Shalom volunteer since 2013 taught me that the Holy Spirit is the core of this ministry. The Spirit truly blows where it wills (John 3:8) guiding all decisions made at Shalom, which I have experienced first-hand. I saw this decision to stop all in-person events as guided by the Spirit because as physical access to evangelization efforts became impossible, the Spirit blew wide open the virtual world and put His stamp of uniqueness and approval on it for Shalom.

When I was invited to be the host for the first virtual Shalom Retreat in English just as the COVID-19 pandemic began its onslaught in the United States, I said “yes,” but I was apprehensive of my abilities to be a virtual retreat host. Though I had over ten years of online teaching experience as a college professor, I had never evangelized virtually. I was also uncertain of the ability of a virtual retreat to successfully reach participants spiritually and affectively in just two or three days, three hours maximum per day. Having coordinated and been the host for about five in-person Shalom Retreats, I doubted the virtual experience would compare or even be effective in accomplishing the spiritual goals of Shalom Retreats—transformation from spiritual complacency to active spiritual seeking and participation; transformation from à la carte Catholics to full-menu Catholics; transformation from being receivers to being givers. After hosting my first virtual Shalom Retreat, all my uncertainties were proven wrong.

Hosting virtual Shalom Retreats in North America, Europe, and Africa in 2020 and 2021 allowed me to gain valuable insights about the power of the Trinity to transcend place and space. I recognized the power of God as creator. Just as God created order out of disorder at the moment of creation, God is able to take the brokenness in people’s lives and convert it into wholeness and newness. This was evident in the testimonies shared by many participants post-retreat who testified to the transformation they had experienced. The Word, that is Jesus, and the Spirit, both present at creation, were similarly present in the retreats in dynamic ways. Because talks were limited in number in the virtual retreats, I observed that there was a greater focus on the Word. Fr. Jilto George and Fr. Sam Thomas, along with the main speakers, Dr. Zubin Jacob and Alex Antony, focused heavily on the Word. The Word formed the foundation, as well as the building blocks of each teaching, which was not always the case in in-person retreats. The experience of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was remarkable. My first experience of virtual Adoration was unbelievable. I felt the presence of Jesus in a powerful way that brought me to tears and this was the same for each retreat I hosted. The sharing of the Word and of words of knowledge during Adoration had the same intensity as in in-person retreats. The Spirit ministered to me personally at every retreat, which proved to me that He was similarly ministering to the participants. The Spirit moved throughout each virtual retreat in an amazing way. The coordination of all aspects of the retreat was impeccable. There were only insignificant glitches as the Spirit, who is a Spirit of Order, worked all things for the good. As I introduced and shared between the segments of each retreat, I relied almost one hundred percent on the Spirit to guide me, and the Spirit always revealed to me insights to share that connected with the speakers before or after me. The Spirit also visibly touched the participants whom I witnessed raising hands, praising, singing, making facial and body gestures, and sharing comments in the chats that indicated that the Spirit was touching them.

Based on what I have experienced within the past seven years of Shalom Retreats, I have concluded that whether in-person or virtual, these retreats are distinctly the same. Nothing is lacking in a virtual Shalom Retreat that is available in an in-person Shalom Retreat. Overall, a Shalom Retreat can be described as a Trinitarian experience that culminates with a call to action. A Shalom Retreat allows Catholics to experience God and to set ablaze their relationship with God through the power of the Word of God, Eucharistic Adoration, and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual quality of teaching, prayer, and testimony are the work of the Spirit, and they cut deep into minds, hearts, and souls, touching inner places that need healing and blessing that the average Catholic is unaware of. A Shalom Retreat is not designed to make participants feel good. It instead challenges participants to take a deeper look at themselves and their relationship with God, so that they can grow spiritually and get to a higher level of communion with God.

There are countless testimonies from those who have attended in-person, as well as, virtual Shalom Retreats that give glory to God for the physical and spiritual healings experienced and for miracles and blessings received during and after the retreats. Even as the world opens up in an upcoming post-COVID era, and in-person spiritual activities become available and the norm, I believe that virtual Shalom Retreats should continue because they have the additional ability to unite Catholics worldwide in the same space regardless of place and time differences.