The first of the province’s annual
summer retreats took place at the Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y.,
from June 5 to 11 with some 45 confreres taking part, a healthy mix of brothers
and priests. They came from almost the full length and breadth of the province,
from Surrey to Belle Glade, from Boston to Marrero (“almost” because we didn’t
stretch as far northeast as we might have—Sherbrooke wasn’t represented).
Bro. Tom Dion, the province’s delegate
for formation, coordinated the week; it was the first time he’d done so, and he
admitted to finding the task much more challenging than he’d anticipated. But
the retreatants found that he did his task well.
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| Bro. Tom Dion, Sr. Lory Mazzei, and Sr. Clara Remartini. |
This retreat was unusual (not unique,
if my memory’s correct) as SDB retreats go in that it was preached by two
religious sisters, in this case members of the Apostles of the Interior Life.
This is a small (16 members), new congregation founded in 1990 to promote the
spiritual life, especially through mentoring (direction). They do so in the
U.S. and Italy principally on college campuses (Kansas University and Texas
A&M, and at one time the University of Illinois in Champaign) and in a
multi-week program in spiritual mentoring in the Kansas City, Kan., Archdiocese
that Bro. Tom is taking—which is how the Apostles came to be invited to preach
our retreat.
Preaching a week-long retreat to
priests and religious was a first-time experience for the apostles. But our two
preachers, Sister Loredana and Sister Clara—who were asked by their superior
about their availability—eagerly accepted, not only because they know Bro. Tom
but also because both of them have Salesian connections in their native Italy.
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| Fr. Dennis Hartigan presiding at one of the Eucharistic celebrations. |
The two sisters tag-teamed the daily
conferences, using their written texts, music, video, and of course their own
experience and wisdom. They spoke of what Pope Francis has called the four
pillars of the spiritual life for priests and seminarians: prayer, community,
intellectual study, and the apostolate. They illustrated these pillars in the
life of a 20th-century priest, Blessed Carlo Gnocchi, and they pointed to the
Virgin Mary as a model for us in her faith, her joy, her obedience, etc. In
their last two conferences, they presented an “instrument” to help the
confreres apply what we’d heard to our own lives and invited us to “share” in
small groups what we’d found valuable in our week’s experience. Sisters Lory
and Clara deeply impressed the retreatants with their presentations,
friendliness, and joy.
In addition to the sister’s fine
conferences, the retreat featured the usual SDB camaraderie, the customary
pilgrimage to the province cemetery at Goshen (the only day it rained, of
course), Good Nights that updated the confreres on the local reshaping taking
place in Ramsey, Port Chester, and Orange, and some in-depth commentary about
province matters from Fr. Tim Zak.
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Praying for our deceased confreres in the cemetery at Goshen.
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| Bro. Henry Van der Velden enjoying an ice cream cone after the cemetery visit. |
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| Conviviality and fellowship at the dinner table. |
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