June 15, 2015
As I have mentioned before in this column, we continue to celebrate The Year of Consecrated Life. At the end of June, Paulist priests and students will gather for a Paulist national retreat to celebrate and reflect on our mission and our lives together. Specifically, we are reflecting on the theme, which comes from Pope Francis: “Gratitude for our Past, Passion for our Present and Hope for our Future.”
The retreat, to be held at the Redemptorist Retreat House on the Jersey Shore, will begin with a keynote address by Sister Dianne Bergant, CSA, professor emerita of Old Testament Scripture at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Her talk will be a refection on Pope Francis’ Letter on Religious Life Today. She has written extensively on Sacred Scripture, and I am among many Paulists who find her books on preaching the Sunday Scriptures invaluable. Paulist Fathers Frank DeSiano, Steven Bell and Dave Dwyer will be among those making presentations on the theme of gratitude, passion, and hope. There will be ample time for discussion, reflection, worship and the beach!
My prayer is that this gathering will enable us to renew ourselves in the Paulist mission of evangelization, reconciliation, ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, as well as strengthen our fraternal bonds. We need to ask ourselves: Where is the Holy Spirit leading us today? What is holding us back? In every age, there are a new set of challenges and opportunities, and the retreat will be an opportunity to come together and ask the Lord to send us the Holy Spirit to lead us through.
Paulists are always at their best when we come together for gatherings like this. There is always a great spirit of enthusiasm, creativity, laughter and wisdom as we reconnect with one another. I am hopeful that during this retreat we will fully embrace God’s call to on-going conversion among ourselves so that we may be able to be agents of conversion for others. We have a rich tradition of sharing the Gospel in North America, despite adversity. I remain optimistic the same is true today.
I ask you to pray with us! As part of our larger Paulist community, I invite you to take a moment to reflect on the themes of gratitude, passion and hope as they relate to your life and relationship with God and the Church. Pray that God may renew your spirit of outreach to others. And finally, pray with us, that the Spirit of God may be with the Paulists during our retreat so that we may truly hear the Word of God, and be sent by the Spirit to serve today’s Church more deeply, and continue to engage those beyond our pews.
I look forward to sharing with you the fruits of this endeavor!