Retreat Days
Assisi, Italy
“Come, let us go up the Lord’s mountain…that He may instruct us in His ways (Is 2:3)”
Advent is a time of waiting and preparing ourselves for the coming of our King, Christ Jesus. This season’s liturgies use many of the writings from the prophets that reflect the deep yearning of the people of God for their long-awaited Messiah. One lesser known prophet, Haggai, offers an important exhortation for the people of Israel to prepare a place for the Lord by rebuilding His temple: Ascendite en montem (1:8), Go up the mountain, to collect the materials to rebuild the Lord’s house. This verse describes well our experience over the past week in a town nestled on the mountain side. We went up, not only physically to find a place of prayer for retreat, but also spiritually for the “materials” necessary to prepare our hearts for both Our Lord’s Nativity and our own approaching ordination to the diaconate. Looking out from the top of the mountain, where only the ruins of a castle built by human hands remain, we took in the scene of a small thriving town, where St. Francis, St. Clare, St. Rufino, Blessed Carlo Acutis, and countless other saints have walked, along with the millions of pilgrims that visit every year—truly the work of God! Assisi, whose very name is derivative from ascendite—Go up, is a town of steeples and tolling bells, friars and religious sisters, men and women on retreat, and pilgrims from around the world seeking an encounter with their God.
It was a special gift to have our Director of Spiritual Formation at Mundelein Seminary, Fr. Arturo Felix, OFM Conv., meet us in Assisi to preach our retreat. He focused on the promises that each of us will make at our ordination to the diaconate. Fr. Felix led us deeper into understanding our identity as sons of God and our future identity as men consecrated for the ministry of the Church to continue the work of Christ on earth. Each of us could fill pages with the richness of Fr. Felix‘s conference material and the fruit of our own personal prayer, but I wish to share with you three themes that I believe resonated with all of us on retreat: resolve, humble charity, and conformity to Christ.
Each of the seven promises of the Ordination Rite begin with the words, “Do you resolve…?” These words demand both an immediate and decisive response to surrender ourselves to God and his Church in a new and radical way; at the same time, they are the promise of an ongoing commitment which we must make daily to fulfill these promises in ever deeper and more complete ways. In our world today that so often looks at commitment as a restraining force set against our freedom, it was a powerful experience for us to pray with these opening words of the promises that will bind our lives as consecrated men to the mission of the Church and reflect upon the true freedom that is found for us in following God’s will in our lives.
Secondly, the theme of “humble charity”, as the manner in which we are called to carry out our diaconal consecration, was a powerful topic to meditate upon. As deacons, we will be called to embrace the identity of “Christ the Servant” to (1) emulate Christ in our own lives, and (2) model Christ for his Church. Humble charity will be the path to our own sanctification as we seek to imitate and live out Christ’s words and actions at the Last supper when washing his disciples’ feet:
Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s fee. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done for you… if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (Jn 13:12-17)
Thirdly, our respective bishops will ask us if we resolve “to conform our manner of life to the example of Christ,” to which we will respond, “I do, with the help of God.” Truly, this is a promise demanding an acknowledgment of supernatural aid to respond in the affirmative. It is only possible for us to fulfill this promise through full personal commitment and a constant cooperation and ever-growing dependance upon the grace of God. In this way we truly can become an Alter Christus—another Christ: conformity to Christ the Servant, the Teacher, the Shepherd, the Mediator, and the Sacrificial Oblation on the Cross.
In sum, the retreat was an extremely fruitful experience for all of us men preparing for ordination and led to a deeper realization of the many graces the Lord has worked in our lives along with the loving encouragement from Our Heavenly Father to continue to be transformed after the likeness of his own Son, Jesus Christ.
Besides the incredible reflections and prayer centered around our upcoming diaconate ordination, our time in Assisi was also a blessed encounter with many saints, some of which I mentioned earlier, and the beauty of God’s creation. I believe all of us took advantage of the silence to experience God’s goodness in strolling through the winding stone streets of Assisi and the outlying olive groves, vineyards and mountain trails. Dining with my classmates in silence for a week while living in a fully operational hotel brought its own small joys as well; it is always the right time to be practicing that humble charity and conformity to Christ the Servant that we were all praying about!
I believe that for many of us the conclusion of this retreat in Assisi was marked by the general sentiment of “the beginning of the end”: only a couple more stops on this wonderful pilgrimage together, only a few more days before the end of the Advent Season, and very significantly for us 3rdtheologians, only a number of months before our diaconate ordinations. We find ourselves reflecting and sharing a deep thanksgiving for everything we have been given in each of these areas, yet there is also the anticipation for what is to come: time with family at home, the joy of Christ’s birth, and our diaconate ordination to begin a life of service in God’s Church. During our ordination Masses, our bishops will exhort each of us upon the completion of our promises: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” This is indeed a lofty responsibility and undertaking to know, live, and teach the Gospel of Christ. Thus, it is not without some nervousness that we move forward toward accepting the Lord’s invitation toward the diaconate; however, I know each of us have experienced God’s providence and love, along with the love of His Church, during this pilgrimage and retreat in a new and deeper way that has encourage us to fulfill the words of Scripture, “run with endurance the race set out for us,keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. (Heb 12:2)”
-JohnPaul Stedwill, Diocese of Peoria
