Testimonials

At a recent Verbum Dei retreat we listened, talked, sang, shared, ate, and played. All this was good. But what astonished us was the growing  inescapable feeling that God loves and yearns for us past all knowing. As this soaked in, worries and hurts faded until we felt surrounded by God’s care. We  became one community, from all different cultures, who wrapped in God’s arms, opened to each other.

The Verbum Dei Missionaries quickly touched me by their hospitality–welcoming me in my new role as spiritual director, to share this sacred ground with directees and parish friends who are seeking to be more attentive to God’s Spirit in their lives. And given the extraordinary theological scholarship of the Missionaries and the commission by the Diocese to provide the Institute for Catholic Spirituality and Spiritual Direction, Valley residents no longer need to travel to universities for serious theological study nor to far-off monasteries to find a place-apart for contemplative prayer. It is sacred ground upon which to grow deeper in faith and awareness of God’s movement in every phase of one’s life.

I attended a silent retreat, which is when I first fell in love with the Seeds of Life Spirituality Center. It allowed me to feel God’s presence in the silence. A silence so rare and so hard to find in our daily lives. As a mother of 3, this is a time that I take not to escape the daily routine, (because I love my calling to be a mother of the children God has entrusted to my care), but to nourish my soul, my faith, my relationship with Christ, so I can go back and be a better mother, wife, friend, and daughter of God. I am forever grateful to God for placing the Seeds of Life Spirituality Center and the Verbum Dei Missionaries in Tracy, out of all the places in the world.

As a new immigrant family with two kids, we feel Verbum Dei is not only a place where we learn about God, but also a big family that we could gather together with and share our experience of life. We like going to Verbum Dei because we find it’s a lovely place with hopeful, joyful and energetic people. No matter where you come from and who you are, you will be accepted and treated as a family member there.