May Monthly Retreat: The Gift of Holy Purity and the Holy Spirit

Amid the intense rhythm of academic and formative life, there are moments when we must pause — to return to our centre: the interior life and our living relationship with the Lord. This is the very reason our monthly retreats exist. And so, on Saturday the 16th of May 2026, we gathered for our monthly retreat, led by Fr. Richard Stonier, a doctoral candidate in Canon Law and a former student of our college.

During the meditations, Fr. Richard guided us to turn to the Lord and ask for two fundamental gifts on our vocational journey: holy purity and the Holy Spirit. He reflected on how purity of heart is not an abstract ideal, but a concrete freedom — one that enables us to love God and others with sincerity, just as Mary did. This freedom, he reminded us, does not arise from human effort alone. It is born of the action of the Holy Spirit, who illumines, purifies, and sustains us. These truths resonated with particular depth in the Holy Mass that brought the retreat to its close.