A recollection is a “mini-retreat,” a few hours of quiet prayer when we look at our lives in God's presence. This guide can help us spend an hour or two in loving conversation with God, right where we are. 

Recollection, as understood in respect to the spiritual life, means attention to the presence of God in the soul. It includes the withdrawal of the mind from external and earthly affairs in order to attend to God  and Divine things. It is the same as interior solitude in which the soul is alone with God .

This recollection is twofold: one which may be acquired by our own efforts aided by the ordinary grace of God . Thus any devout soul can acquire the habit of thinking of God ‘s presence and of fixing attention upon Him and his Divine perfections. This is called active recollection. The other, called passive, does not depend upon our own efforts,but is an extraordinary grace infused by God , by which He summons together the faculties of the soul and manifests His presence and His perfections; this kind of recollection is classed by mystical writers as the first degree of infused contemplation.